>> fantastic. unless geraldo can talk him into letting him sing back-up again. >> joe, great job on the song. >> thank you, man. >> the military truly appreciates it. >> log on for the after the show show. have a great weekend, everybody. bill: let's start now with a fox news alert on this thursday morning. there are new questions of perjury for the attorney general eric holder. the head of the house judiciary committee calling for the ag to step down as he formally opens an investigation whether or not he lied under oath. that is heavy topic here on bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom.". martha: good morning everybody. i'm martha maccallum. eric holder receiving a letter from bob goodlatte, the chairman of the house judiciary committee expressing his, quote, grave concerns that the attorney general may have perjured himself when he testified on the hill two weeks ago. bill: it was two weeks ago, martha. remember that's when holder said targeting journalists was something he had never been involved in.

we found out after the fact he was involved in the decision to the. >> on fox's james rosen's e-mails and phone calls. good lat says this, quote, the media reports and statements issued by the department regarding search warrants of mr. rosen's e-mails appear to be ad odds with your testimony before the committee. that goes to the heart of the matter. stephen hayes, "weekly standard.". good morning. what are they trying to achieve? >> they're trying to understand why there are discrepancies in the things eric holder testified to and subsequent reports and lay this out in detailed questions in eight long questions, asking holder to explain the discrepancies. bill: you believe the committee has obligation to pursue based on what they have heard since? >> absolutely. if you look at what eric holder said on the surface there is a clear contradiction there between his claim under oath, had

not only been not involved in but never heard of potential prosecution of reporters. then later his involvement in these discussions about this affidavit and about going after james rosen and his e-mails. bill: this is a basic question that is in the letter. this goes to the heart of the matter too. on screen, the justice department issued a statement that the search warrant for mr. rosen's e-mails was approved at the highest levels of the department. did this include you? the answer to that will take you a long way, won't it? >> i think it will. we had a number of media reports that suggested eric holder's involvement in all these things. one of the things that chairman goodlatte wants to find out if holder himself will cop to this. interestingly yesterday at the white house briefing, jay carney actually defended eric holder and suggested that holder had been truthful in his testimony. i think we saw at least the white house taking one step to support this embattled attorney general. bill: in a moment here we'll

hear a bit of that from jay carney but just bottom line this, steve. with the committee wants to figure out is whether or not he lied or whether or not he misremembered or forgot? >> right. think, certainly the tone of the letter reads like these, these folks who sent it believe that eric holder didn't tell the truth. i think though want to get to the bottom of it. these questions are very detailed and very pointed. it will be hard for eric holder to use the, i forgot, defense given everything we know that has been publicly reported and again if you look back at his testimony. bill: this letter looks like an irs form. different story. see you soon, man. stephen hayes in washington. martha: stephen was saying jay carney defended holder's testimony as he appears to dodge a question what was behind the decision to label james rosen a quote, coconspirator. here is the exchange with

fox's we've white house correspondent he had henry yesterday afternoon, watched. >> even if the attorney general ruled out he would prosecute rosen on question of potential prosecution this is not something i ever been involved in or heard of. we know he was involved in it at very least. that is the question was he not tolling truth on that point. he was involved in it. >> involved in what? >> signed off on the search warrant. you're not involved -- >> i refer you to the justice department. you guys are conflating the subpoena with prosecution and i think -- >> that is not the question. potential prosecution. >> quoting to you what the attorney general said. martha: hard to figure out why you would need a subpoena if you're not considering a potential prosecution. those were the words that eric holder used, potential prosecution saying he had never been involved in such a thing. so obviously they have a lot of legitimate questions here about whether or not eric holder was telling the truth in that testimony. you know, the other question

that's raised here, bill, whether or not it was sort of exaggerated in order to get the search warrant. you know, whether it was situation where eric holder was saying, we needed to say that in order to get the search warrant, but we never had the intention following through with the search warrant. we wanted access and judge needed to give us access. bill: so many questions still surrounding this. we have questions for our guest coming up in a moment. randy fors, congressman, on judiciary committee. he was in the room during eric holder's infamous testimony. congressman is live on our program where he says someone needs to lose a lot more than his job, 25 minutes away. martha: rob portman addressings hundreds of tea party members about the irs scandal at a meeting in cincinnati. he called for a special prosecutor to investigate. some there went even further. watch some of this. >> there is only one way to fix this, abolish the irs, isn't it?

>> that march 14th letter to the irs said, what is going on? this doesn't make any sense to us because we're hearing from tea party folks all around the state of ohio they're getting these onerous questionnaires, the george, mentioned question about praying. we didn't get that in ohio but we got a lot of questions that were inappropriate. martha: where is this going? rogue agents at the irs cincinnati office were originally blamed for singling out conservative groups. but documents later surged knowledge of the policy were far more widespread in the agency. a lot of questions there. bill: a bit of a different storm to talk about now. incredible video from illinois, floodwaters crashing into a college. this is surveillance video. the water is so powerful, shatters the glass doors at carl sandberg college, flooding the building with several feet of water inside. no reports of injuries but it will take the school several days to clean up that mess that rolled through.

martha: new york city mayor michael bloomberg responding to a pair of threatening letters that tested positive for the poison ricin. both letters mentioned the mayor's gun control efforts. neither reached him personally. bloomberg says this is not going to stop his push for more strict gun laws. >> there are people who i would argue do things that may be irrational, do things that are wrong but it is a very complex world out there, we just have to deal with that. martha: took it pretty much in stride. eric shawn is live at city hall in new york. eric, what is the latest on this morning? >> good morning, martha. you know you could die from exposure to ricin but as you just heard new york city mayor michael bloomberg says this will not deter his efforts against gun violence in this country. those two letters reportedly postmarked from shreveport, louisiana, contain threats about the recent gun debate say authorities. mayor michael bloomberg has

been an outspoken critics of gun rights in our nation. he is fighting for gun control and background checks in the wake of the newtown, connecticut, shootings one of the letters was opened at a new york mail facility. two emergency unit members apparently suffered minor injuries from that but are doing okay. the other letter was opened on sunday. that was opened in a park on a bench, opened according to the fox affiliate on washington director of the group, mayors against legal guns, martin glaze. mayor bloomberg used some of his money, $12 million over the past several months to found and fund a group, mayors against illegal dpunls. he vows he will continue his battle against gun violence. >> the letter was obviously referred to our anti-gun efforts but there are 12,000 people will get killed here with guns and 19,000 will commit suicide with ounce about and we're not going to walk away from those efforts. >> reporter: the mayors

group against legal guns so far targeted democrats and republicans for their gun stances. they have about a thousand members of mayors around the country dealing with this issue, martha. martha: this isn't the first time we've heard about the use of ricin, eric. >> reporter: yeah. it is really strange. this is the third such case in the past few weeks. turned out that last week in washington state a man has been arrested and charged with a sending a ricin-laced letter to a federal judge. of course last month in mississippi there is the infamous case of another man, a 47-year-old charged with making and possessing ricin. that dealing with a case which ricin-laced letters were sent to president obama and mississippi senator roger wicker. know indication those cases have any connection to the bloomberg letters but of course authorities and the fbi are now investigating. martha: eric, thank you. bill: happened, what, at the end of last week? maybe that helped the investigation. we'll see. we're getting rolling here.

american mother of seven being held in a mexican jail for a drug crime she says she did not commit and now she is talking. >> i was in shock. i'm like, this is not real. this is not happening. bill: how is she holding up today and what happens next in her case? we'll tell but that. martha: plus there are more than two dozen tea party groups suing the irs over the targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny. we'll talk to the president of one of those groups and get their personal story about what they went through. bill: also getting ready for the cancellation notice. why the president's health care law could mean that you could lose your health insurance. >> we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy. we had never used a contractor before

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martha: to london now where one of the prime suspects in

the horrifying murder of a british soldier just appeared moments ago in court. michael adebolajo only confirmed his name, address and date of birth in this appearance. the other suspect is still in the hospital after being shot by police at the end of that horrific scene. they are accused of murdering this young man, 25-year-old, lee rigby, in broad daylight on a busy street in front of his post. they invited onlookers to film him as they ranted about the british government's presence in their land. bill: many americans who buy their own health insurance could soon be getting letters in the mail canceling their current policies and it is all because of the new health care law taking elater this year. remember when the president said this selling the law four years ago. >> if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period. if you like your doctor, you

will be able to keep your doctor, period. [applause] bill: where are we in 2013? stephen moore, senior writer for "the wall street journal." good morning to you. >> hi, bill. bill: cancellation of policies set to go out this fall. who is likely to receive one of those, steve? >> this is one of the big controversies of the bill, bill and what we're finding, there are about 1 million americans who buy their insurance as individuals -- 14 million. not through the group employment plan. those people, many of them are likely to get these notices saying that your plan is being canceled because it doesn't meet the minimum threshold of the obamacare law. and what that means, especially a lot of young people who are buying, basically the bare bones health insurance policies just to cover catastrophic events, those people are likely to see their plans canceled. it gets back to the clip you just showed.

those people actually will lose the insurance plan that they have and they, kind of like it because those are cheaper plans. a lot of these people will have their plans, canceled, bill. they will face higher health care bills in terms of insurance and a lot of people can't afford that. bill: a rude awakening i would say. >> yeah. bill: those are words, you're describing it earlier today. what will the people do? >> there are two options they have to drop out of the insurance market which is exactly on silt of what obamacare plan had in mind. they were supposed to cover everyone. the other option is buy a pricier plan. when you talk about young people or lower income families, bill, that extra 1,000 or $2,000 a month, that is something those families can't afford. bill: you're saying it will be more expensive for them? >> yeah. let me explain why that is, bill. one of the controversial features of obamacare it has what we call mandated benefits. if you buy a health insurance plan it has to

cover for things like birth control, dentisty and other things you may not be able to afford in your health policy. that will make it more expensive for people. and so, that is why i think a lot of people are going to say, you know what? i can't afford this new cadillac coverage plan. let me give you kind of an analogy. it is almost like saying if you go into a new car showroom you can't buy the cheap car, bill. you have to buy a porsche or cadillac. bill: which is a nice car but you may not need it. some of the state commissioners say you will be able to shop in the marketplace and you will get better coverage. is that necessarily true? >> look, there are some regulations with respect to obamacare that make a lot of sense, bill. for example, one of the things that infuriates health care consumers their insurance, if you get sick your insurance company drops you from coverage. those types of regulations, that insurance companies can't do that, i think make a lot of sense but requiring

people to buy what we call these cadillac coverage plans is really a hardship for families that can't afford it. that is why it gets to the whole issue, can you keep the plan that you want he especially if you're someone, say you're somebody who just graduated from college and you're 22 to 30 years old. you want to have coverage to cover you if you get cancer or break your leg, some catastrophic event. you can't buy that kind of insurance policy under this new law. bill: watch this number in the next year. fox news poll. which would be better on obamacare, leave the system in place or go back to 2009 system? look february 2011. it was 48%. it has jumped eight points to 56%. now you will see, steve, when the law starts to take effect whether or not that number goes higher or lower. >> there was a poll that just came out yesterday from rasmussen which is very related to this. it asked people would have smaller paycheck and better

health care or larger paycheck and maybe less health care coverage. and 60% of the respondents said, we want higher paycheck, because, bill, people are struggling to make ends meet right now. they can't afford a lot of this extra coverage that obamacare is mandating. we ought to keep an eye on this, if people lose coverage, that is exactly the opposite what obamacare was expected, the result we were supposed to get. bill: stephen moore, thank you. more to talk about on this, plenty more to talk on this, out of washington. martha? martha: more to talk about this as well because the same weather system that triggered dozens of tornadoes in the midwest is now moving eastward. this is the scene at one of those storms left behind. a new threat exists today out there. we'll tell you what you need to know next on "america's newsroom." s having a french fry. yes she is, yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings

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bill: we're getting word of a tragic car accident that killed seven people, including four children under the age of 10. that crash happened on a highway south of syracuse, new york. police say a truck's trailer disconnected from its cab and crossed the center line of a highway, slamming into a minivan carrying eight people. only one person inside the minivan survived. there were two people in the truck and neither of them were injured. martha: nearly a dozen more tornadoes have been spotted in southern nebraska. we understand that the twisters damaged a number of buildings. here is evidence of that. so far no injuries have been reported. the same storm system that produced those twisters headed east. meteorologist maria molina is live in the fox weather center with the very latest. where can we expect to see more of this, maria. >> good morning, martha. good to see you. the storm system is headed east but doing it very, very he slowly. what that means some of the areas that had been impacted by severe storms over the

last couple of days including parts of the plains and also the midwest could look at more severe storms today even as we head into tomorrow. again a very slow-moving storm system. we want to actually show you video of damage from severe weather outbreak. this is out of wisconsin. we received over 300 reports of damaging winds and large hail with these storms. more than 20 yesterday were of tornadoes. on tuesday we had more than 30 tornadoes reported and a lot of damaging winds and hail. extreme weather with the storm system. flooding is another big concern as the storms go over similar area and the ground is already saturated. we had flooding in parts of illinois. there is video as well. floodwaters breaking through. this is actually a college in illinois. so today the college is closed and we're looking at cleanup efforts continuing out there. again, the threat of severe storms through central parts of texas, portions of wisconsin and illinois as well. the storm prediction center updated the risk of chance that we do have in parts of

kansas and oklahoma. earlier it was a slight risk. that is now a moderate risk. basically we're seeing ingredients in place. very warm air, very humid air as well that will fire up those storms. oklahoma city and moore,, oklahoma, they were we mentioned yesterday under moderate risk and again today. you could look at stronger tornadoes possibly moving through those areas. have a way to receive warnings, damaging winds in excess of 60 miles an hour and large hail concern as well. part of the reason we have the severe weather is how warm it is ahead of the system. 90 degrees in new york city and in upper parts of the state of texas. this is it where we're expecting see sear storms tomorrow. parts of the great lakes down into oklahoma yet again. martha: boy, maria, thank you very much. bill: right into summer, huh. martha: 90-degree weather in new york city but nothing to endure like people deal with the tornadoes. bill: system in the middle part of the country too.

all he wanted to do is teach kids about politics. instead he endured a bureaucratic nightmare in the hands of the irs. the president of one conservative group is now suing the irs and his attorney will join us live with their story. martha: a big story today, the house is now investigating attorney general eric holder for possible perjury. the questions that republicans want mr. holder to answer by june 5 is their deadline. one. lawmakers who is heading that investigation is here in "america's newsroom", coming up after this.

martha: well the house judiciary committee is now demanding that u.s. attorney general eric holder answer several key questions about his testimony on the justice department's reporter snooping case. republican lawmakers are investigating whether he lied under oath when he made this statement. watch. >> with regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that i've ever been involved in and heard of or would think would be a wise policy. in fact, my view is quite the opposite that --. martha: well we'll look into that statement and where we are now with that statement. meanwhile take a look at this. eric holder's job performance approval polls,

this is a three-year spread here. now you've got 28% approval versus 36 three years ago. look at disapproval increase here. back in may of 2010, it was 27%. now the disapproval rating for eric holder is at 40%. so that is a look how he stand right now in these numbers. let's now bring in virginia republican randy forbes who is on the house judiciary committee who is investigating the attorney general and he was in that hearing room during the testimony in question. congressman, welcome. good to have you here this morning. >> thank you, martha. it is great to be with you. martha: i want to take a little bit of your colleague bob goodlatte's letter because it really breaks down specifically the questions you all have for eric holder the let's take a look at that and pull it up on the screen. it says, how can you claim to have never been involved in the potential produce caution of a member of the media but you were admittedly involved in, quote, discussions regarding

mr. rosen's e-mails? there seems to be a lot of contradiction here. how do you plan to get at the truth here? >> well, martha, i think one of the things the american people expect, they don't expect their leaders to be flawless but they expect them to be honest and especially the chief law enforcement officer of the united states. and mr. holder, despite what mr. carney said, mr. carney was saying in the clip you played just a few moments ago that he was talking about actual prosecutions. that is not what he was talking about. in fact his own words that you just played said, potential prosecutions. and he said, with potential prosecutions of the press he had never even heard of any of this. yet, martha, i've got a copy of the application they had for search warrant and as you know, they don't say that they're on a fishing expedition. they state in this application that there was probable cause that mr. rosen had committed a crime. if there was not even the potential for prosecution, whoever filed this

application needs to not only lose their job, but lose their license to practice law because they have clearly misrepresented this to the court. so we plan to make sure we have i have iten mr. holder another opportunity to clarify everything he said. but i think when all of this clears out, martha, we're going to find out he didn't tell the truth to the judiciary committee. martha: yeah, you know, there's a number about issues that are brought up in all of the questions that are laid out in bob goodlatte's letter. one of them is, did the doj intend to prosecute which is the issue you're bringing up here. clearly they claim that the, james rosen was a potential flight risk and that was the reason that they couldn't disclose the matter to him and to fox news because they feared that if he knew that they were snooping and looking at his phone calls and his e-mails, that he might be a flight risk. so really they built a very strong case that there might be some sort of criminal reason why they should have the right to track him

without his knowing about it. so then to say, oh, there was never any intention to prosecute. makes you wonder, why the heck would you need to have all of this built in, if you never intended to prosecute? >> mart, that you're exactly right, and remember, it wasn't just that the reason why they wouldn't disclose this to mr. rosen, but they actually requested the court to issue an order where it could not be disclosed for the very reasons that you mentioned. if they didn't even have the potential of a prosecution then they certainly thwarted the intent of this law and i think they have misrepresented themselves to, to this judge who ought to be very, very concerned about the actions that they took. i think what we'll find is, that they may very well have had that potential and what we find is that the attorney general, when he was talking to congress, just didn't tell us that he had actually heard about this and maybe even signed off on this application. martha: all right. >> those are the kind of

things we'll be looking to find out, martha. martha: i understand. you referenced jay carney moments ago. this is the white house's response to what we're discussing. let's play that. >> i think based on what you said he testified truthfully. i think every published report, i think, attorney general talked about prosecution, every published report that i've read about the case in question says that it is completed. no further charges or prosecution is contemplated. and again i would point you to published reports and extremely large distinction between, you know, what is at issue hire and prosecution. martha: i mean, prosecution was exactly what he said. he said he had never been involved in any potential prosecution of the media and that wasn't something that he would abide is essentially what he was saying. now, one of the separations here that the language has gone to, he was involved, in quote, discussions that surrounded the rosen case

and perhaps did not sign off on the search warrant itself. so you have a number of questions that you want answered in this letter that go specifically to that, correct? >> no question, martha. we want to find out exactly what the attorney general did, but remember, even if he was involved in discussions, his testimony before our committee said that he had never even heard of this. and martha, this wasn't a trick question. this was a softball question given to him by a member of his own party. so it wasn't like he was blindsided by this question. so we want to get to the facts of exactly what he did but i think when we find that out, he at least had heard of it and heard of potential prosecution. martha: one of the key things here we should get in, that the discussion that we just showed with eric holder in your hearing room was about the ap story. but in it, he made that broad statement that he had never been involved in ining like a prosecution and days later we found out that the rosen story began to unravel

and that's how all of this came about. congressman randy forbes, thank you very much. we'll watch this closely and talk to you again on this. >> thank you, martha. bill: let's check the markets now, trading seven minutes old now. we got jobs number about an hour ago, they ticked up week after week. jobless claims up to 354,000 for the week. markets are treading water at the moment. we're holding steady at 15,298. we had an all-time high on tuesday at the close on tuesday. trouble in japan. a big selloff. we'll see the effect here. martha: taking a breather for the moment so we'll watch it. meantime the white house says that the targeting of conservative groups ended two years ago but our next guest says he got a letter that smacks of it two weeks ago. we're going to talk to him about that in his two-year journey with the irs and what an exciting journey it's been, right? lovely. great ride. bill: this american mother says she is being framed for

smuggling drugs, rather in mexico and is now speaking out for the first time behind bars. what she's saying about her ordeal as her family make as new push for her freedom. >> trying to be strong and holding up pretty strong and she is very optimistic because she is innocent. that she will -- [inaudible] lord bless our lives and have her free again. [ stewart ] this is the kind of food i love to cook.

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bill: more than two dozen tea party conservative groups now suing the irs over the tax agency targeting them for extra scrutiny. one of the groups is suing, lynchpins of liberty out of tennessee. it said it received this letter digging for more information dated may 6, 2013, nearly a week after irs officials apologized for targeting these krups groups and said the practice had been stopped. the president and founder of lynchpins of liberty is here and the his attorney jay sekulow, center of american law and justice suing on behalf of kevin's group and 20 others. good morning to you. this was an idea born 2011, two years ago? >> yes. bill: you wanted to teach young kids about politics in america? >> lynchpins of liberty is leadership development enterprise. our challenge is to

challenge the rising generation and mentoring high school and college students in political philosophy. bill: you out $30,000, how did that happen. >> we're out $30,000 because the announce additional grant because it took so long. what became most disturbing what the irs was seeking because i work with young people. keep in mind, some of them are minors. the irs asked in its second intrusive letter which had 95 interrogatoriries, asked to identify students i was teaching and tell them in detail what i was teaching them. bill: wow, that is involves kids are what, 15, 16 years old? >> some of them. imagine the parents. >> i can only imagine that because it did not happen to me but it did happen to you. now that you're seeing all this go public, knowing that you had a letter dated may 6, that arrived on may 13th, what do you conclude? >> i conclude that the irs is continuing to obfuscate.

i don't believe they're being honest. the fact they said this practice was stopped a long time, i think two years ago was what was in the testimony and for us to receive a letter, as you said on the 13th of may which now is asking me, not only was it sufficient to identify the children, now they want to tell me where i am teaching the children. bill: you're not a tea party group? >> no but we share ideas with tea party groups. bill: did you have tea party in your application? >> no we did not. bill: you did not. >> nor patriot. we teach conservative political philosophy, those ideas of liberty are deem ad threat apparently to the irs. bill: you have a heavy charge against steven miller in testimony before congress. you say he was telling the truth? i think he oversimplified it. he said it was a mistake from irs employees trying to simplify, only the government would describe a 28-month long delay, 95 interrogatories as efficient. and i also think it was incorrect for him to identify this as merely a

customer service issue because, zappos selling me pair of shoes that are the wrong size is customer service issue. using the irs for political purposes is. bill: jay sekulow has the lawsuit. what at the moment an can you achieve. >> three things we're looking for, bill. the slaut was filed in federal court in washington district court in d.c. what we're asking is three things. number one an injunction. you just heard, these amization still hasn't been granted. we're three years out. we have 10 of these cases applications need to be granted. they are in a state of basically nonresponse by the irs for many months. we need the applications granted. number two, kevin just mentioned and others there are real damages here. loss of grants. some of these organizations had accounting fees. we came into the case to litigate it. we're not charging them. if they incurred fees going through this process. so you have got that kind of damages. there is also a fundamental

violation of constitutional rights here. kevin just mentioned. this whole idea what curriculum you're teaching, how are you teaching it and to whom you are teaching it to violate first amendment free speech and freedom of association clauses. all of those are combined in basically a one very significant lawsuit representing 25 groups. we're also asked for an injunction so the practices stop because bill, they have not. this is a continuous and ongoing violation by the internal revenue servicers still to this day? >> right now. i will tell you that we received last week in our office in addition to kevin's letter, we received a letter, quote, voluntary compliance audits for 501(c)(4)s, these same kind of organizations, either c-3s or c-4s. eight-page questionnaire to be filled out by the clients online by the irs. in the middle of all this they're doing compliance audits to organizations that are already tax-exempt. and in kevin's case, he was not a tea party group.

they share some philosophical points. bill: under stood that. >> he was caught in the dragnet of lois lerner's redefinition what is called the bolo list, be on the lookout list. constitutional principles mentioned in his application. and that was enough to get him in this dragnet so that the understand put forward. lois lerner's attempt to quote, correct the problem actually made it worse. bill: back to kevin here. understood, jay. i want to get kevin back in here in the few seconds we have left. what do you think of the intention, if all this can be proven what was the intention on behalf of the irs? >> i think the question answers itself. why else would these organizations be singled out purely based on their ideas? i think from the c-4s perspective it was intended to interfere with their ability to affect elections and i think in general, this administration, through the irs and its other agencies is threatened by ideas of liberty. bill: we may be just at the very engining of all this. >> i think so, kevin, i appreciate your time.

we'll be in touch with you. kevin kookogey in new york and jay sekulow thank you both. head to our website, foxnews.com /americasnewsroom we have bya box. hit me on e-mail at hemme hemmer@foxnews.com or twitter, @billhemmer, bya, because you asked. one more story on this very topic. stay tuned for that. martha, what's next? martha: what is next, congress is not giving up. they want the state department to tell all about the what they know about the night four americans were killed in benghazi. they have a new way trying to get at it. bill: an emotional tribute to the victims of oklahoma. some of the biggest names in country music use talents to help the rebuilding effort, to comfort a teenager who lost her mother. >> i just want to say thank you to you because mom was a really big fan of you and, i just want to say, that when bad things happen, good

people step up to help. and i want to thank everyone who stepped up, who is stepping up it rebuild the place we call home. the first time i saw a sony 4k tv, it was like opening my eyes.

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bill: this certainly was emotional. some of music's biggest stars, holding a benefit concert for the victims of the oklahoma tornado. grammy award winner blake shelton helping to organize the event. he is joined on stage by usher. listen. ♪ . ♪ it won't be all right, i'll be in oklahoma tonight

♪. ♪ coming back home . bill: well-done. all proceeds benefit the united way of central oklahoma's tornado relief fund. it is not too late to help. donate to the healing in the heart land, by going to their website. united way okc.org on line. martha: great night and great job they did. all right. we are now hearing directly from an arizona mom of seven who is behind bars in mexico. she is accused of trying to smuggle drugs on her way back from a family funeral there. yanira maldonado tells reporters she is not guilty and she has nothing to i had hide. william la jeunesse is live in los angeles. what is the latest in this case, william? >> reporter: well, she is not out yet, martha. by american standards, many

mexican law enforcement, local cops with the federal lease are corrupt. that is not my assessment but the mexican attorney general. shaking down american tourists is a cultural tradition. yanira maldonado and husband gary were traveling back from a funeral for maldonado's aunt where they were stopped at military check point which is common. everyone was told to get off. they allegedly found marijuana taped to under her seat. the soldiers let gary go but yanira spent the last week in a mexican jail. >> i'm in shock. this is not real. this is not happening. they my taped my hand and it is horrible. i'm going to be free. i'm not guilty. i have nothing to hide. >> reporter: maldonado's attorney said at hearing went well because the

soldier's testimony was inconsistent. a mexican judge will review her case and rule on friday. if not, she could spend a few more months in jail until he rules. martha? martha: wow, we learned a little bit about her. she is religious family woman. she seems like on the surface of this a very unlikely candidate for this type of accusation, does she not? >> reporter: well, you know americans trying to smuggle about the drug over the border is not uncommon. she may seem to be perfect fit, clean cut, devout mormon, mother of seven, u.s. citizen, no criminal record. a few things make this implausible number one. they got on the bus with blanket and small bag. 12 pound of pot is like seven shoe boxes. they would have to walk across the port of entry at nogales to get in their car, they would have never made it through with that much dope. they were last two seats when they were boarded. husband said they were set up but proving it is a

bureaucratic mess. >> we have to prove that she is innocent so very exhausting for the whole team working hard and proving her innocence and, yanira is exhausted being behind bars. >> reporter: now mexico, the embassy says maldonado's right to defense counsel and due process are being observed. we expect possibly a ruling on friday but maybe much later. martha: what a mess, nightmare for that family. william, thank you very much. bill: eric holder's plan to mend fences with journalists, apparently backfires. bret baier analyzings that. how is the white house handling the scandals

martha: fox news alert. attorney general eric holder wants to meet, he wants to sit down with members of the media in an apparent effort to try to mend some of the fences but some news outlets are not interested in attending that meeting. big story this morning. welcome, everybody, to a brand new hour of "america's newsroom". i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. welcome at home. all major television, online, print out let's are to be included here part of the attorney general review of justice department's guidelines on investigations involving journalists. the justice department wants it off the record, which means nothing can be talked about or reported. the associated press and "new york times" at this moment say that is not good enough. martha: they say they're not interested in attending an

off the record briefing with the attorney general. bret baier joins me now, anchor of "special report" here on the fox news channel. so you've got some in and some out so far on this, bret. fox news is still deciding whether or not we will be part of this discussion. but, clearly, you know, first of all what is your reaction to that part of all this? >> well, you know, these organizations, so far, the associated press, "new york times", i think cnn now decided not to attend if it's off the record, the purpose of this according to the justice department was to discuss ways forward as far as these leak investigations and how to deal between the justice department, the fbi and the media and the question is whether on the record is what it needs to be and i think our news executives, our executives at fox news channel are making that determination right now and we expect a decision

sometime within the next hour or so. these meetings are scheduled to start as early as tomorrow and they're expected to go a few of them, into next week. martha: they're talking about maybe dividing the meetings among different members of the media and then having another sit-down with executives. clearly there is a very big effort to try to, you know, fix this situation to whatever degree possible but, bret, it also appears when you look what the agenda is, there is also a big effort to control the tenor of it, the message of it. they say we'll only talk about things moving forward, how regulations might change in the future. they say any questions with regard to ap or the james rosen situation are off the table. they will not take any questions about any of those story, right? >> right. and that provides a real problem because understanding that all of these news organizations including ours, they're covering this, closely, and all of the developments of it and here you have the attorney general reaching out and having these meetings and there's a want

and a need for him to answer questions, let alone the firestorm he's facing up on capitol hill, the dome behind me, with the testimony he had may 15th and the efforts of the house judiciary committee to look at whether he possibly lied under oath. martha: yeah. obviously big questions today about eric holder's future and an effort underway to try to protect it to the greatest degree possible. i understand that he hired a new communications director that used to work for charles schumer and we saw the piece that came out in "the daily beast" about his remorse. how does this look, based on what we know at this point, bret? >> i mean, just talking privately to folks at justice, folks up on capitol hill, there is not a sense yet that he is leaving. there's not a sense that he is being pushed out. there may be more things that develop that it gets to that point but at this point

inside both, what capitol hill, the lawmakers up there on both sides of the aisle belief, they don't see the pressure for him to leave internally. so that's interesting. as you get to this point where he is obviously taking on a lot of heat for a number of different elements of this investigation. martha: yeah. we will see. it's a big story. i know you will see a lot of it on "special report" tonight and we'll look forward to that. bret, thank you. >> thank you, martha. bill: despite the outreach effort there are growing calls for the ag to step aside. house judiciary member trent franks saying he is disturbed by his recent interactions with congress. >> unfortunately there seems to be a little bit of a pattern here. back when we were discussing the benghazi with the attorney general he had said specifically he had released all pertinent e-mails. when i questioned him and it is on the record had any of these e-mails been sent by him, it became very clear that he had not disclosed

any e-mails he wrote. then he pointed out he did not intend to do so. bill: the rnc filing a freedom of information act request for e-mails between the state department and the president's campaign at the white house. we'll have more coming up in a couple of minutes to figure out what that --. martha: the white house is declining to confirm reports this morning that a u.s. drone strike in pakistan took out the number two member of the pakistani taliban. yesterday, we told you how security officials in the country said walilu rehman was one of five people killed. the taliban commander was supposed to take over for the leader of that terror group. white house spokesman jay carney saying this about that report in the news briefing. >> those standards are now there for the american public and the world to see. that us does not mean that they would be able to discuss the details of every counterterrorism operation but it does mean there are standards in place that are public and available for every american to review.

martha: hmmm. all right. so the reported strike comes a week after president obama announced new rules governing drone strikes and that's what prompted that question. they also pledged greater transparency about the program. bill: there is a potential game changer in syria. the president country claiming that russia provided his regime with a sophisticated new missile system. this as the terror group hezbollah says its fighters joined syrian government forces. leland vittert on the ground in jerusalem. what does this mean for syria's neighbors, neighbors like israel, leland? >> reporter: exactly, bill. we've seen this go from a popular uprising inside syria to a sectarian civil war. now we're really on the verge of a regional war. the s-300s that have been delivered according to president assad have the ability to shoot down not only military jets operating

inside israeli airspace but also commercial airliners. this is something the israelis say is truly a game-changer. president assad going public in an interview aired in couple of hours, this is him doubling down trying to stay in power. shows he has friends willing to help him. hezbollah he acknowledged has fighters inside syria trying to help him in the delivery of the s-300 missiles saying russia will continue to stand behind their friend. bill: israel says it will not allow this system to become operational. what are the options for israel? >> reporter: there's not a light. right now they're at a bomb, no bomb decision point, attack, don't attack. they asked russians not to deliver the missiles. the russians said we're going to go ahead. remember just earlier this month israel bombed two separate weapons storage facilities inside syria. those were iranian weapons allegedly on the way to hezbollah.

syria did not respond. it may not be the case going forward. president assad said in the interview any attack by israel will draw quote, immediate retaliation. experts say if the retaliation is something like missiles fired at an israeli city, we could be at war in a matter of hours. bill. bill: leland vitter on the ground in jerusalem. eight minutes past. martha: a wave of attacks in iraq. a series of bomb explosions killed 16 people, hurting dozens of others. one of the attacks targeting a police patrol in a busy commercial district. iraq experienced a surge of violence since the beginning of 2013. it is estimated more than 500 people have been killed this month alone. in iraq. bill: -- making national headlines. a woman finding a loaded gun on the seat of a ride at walt disney world in orlando. she was on the animal kingdom dinosaur ride when

see found the weapon. the gun owner had a permit. didn't know he could take the gun to the park. this comes days after a so-called dry ice bomb went off at disneyland in california, forcing the tune town section of the park to be evacuated. police have arrested this man, christian barnes his name, an employee at the park. they believe he placed the dry is inside of a bottle and left it in a trashcan. he is 22. held on a million dollars bail. action in florida. a little at california. martha: dries ice explosions in areas around. they thought it might be linked to that. they linked it to an employee. if it clearly exploded near people's faces or bodies, people clearly could have been injured. all right, coming up the white house is playing defense against a trifecta of scandals reminding us how these two other presidents dealt with some difficulties in their second terms with their own controversies. >> i shall resign the presidency effective at noon

tomorrow. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman, miss lewinsky. martha: all very different situations of course but they bring back a lot of memories about how rocky a second term can be. what exactly is president obama's scandal strategy and is it working? fair and balanced debate coming up. bill: top officials at center of irs scandal may be on administrative leave but is still getting paid her six-figure salary and you're paying for it. can anything be done about that? because you asked we'll get an answer. martha: a 10-year-old girl who may only have weeks to live. the desperate fight to get this little girl a lung transplant. >> she's not aware of this debate over lungs and that she is being treated unfairly. she is not aware of that part. she is aware she is i can is. that she is getting sicker and she is worried that she is dying [ male announcer ] it's the memorial day sale from adt.

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bill: a 30-mile wall of ice threatening to overrun an entire town in alaska. an ice jam has formed at a bend in the yukon river flooding the remote town and crushing it under chunks of ice. look at that. experts say they have never seen anything like it. neither have we i think. more than half the town is already evacuated there. >> it is pretty stressful. a lot of work and a lot of cleanup and a lot of damage. with this long, long, long spring it has just been, you know, real nervous for everybody. bill: that ice is expected to melt over the next several days as temperatures rise but that could mean flooding in towns located further on down the river. martha: there's new questions about how the white house is hand killing the scandals eclipsing the presidency. he is certainly not the first u.s. president to have a rocky time during the second term. who knows that better than my next two guests. doug schoen, former pollster

of president clinton was there during the difficult second term and monica crowley, helped richard nixon with his memoirs. they are fox news contributors. two of the best. when i look at the strategy in the white house now, it appears to be sort of lay low and focus on the fix. keep everybody sort of forward-looking. don't worry about what happened in the past. let's talk about what it will do in the future. will it work, doug? >> so far it is working and i'm not a big obama fan but his approval rating is 50%. what he said is the scandals are somebody else's business or old news. that he is focused as bill clinton said he was in 1998 on the people's business, creating jobs, improving the economy. that is the strategy so far. some success. martha: you said something very interesting that richard nixon said to you. >> yes. martha: about the bill clinton debacle in term two. >> yes, i worked for president nixon during the last four years of his life, 1990 to 1994. so we were witnessing the

early clinton scandals. president nixon in a bought ever frustration, said why did i go to damn fire if nobody will learn from my experience? watching president obama handle this i think absolutely right, both of you are, of his handling of this. obama postured himself as different kind of leader yet he and his team are handling this in a pre conventional way, deny, deflect, distract. insulate the president. hunker down as you said laying low and also try to move on. try to encourage the press to move on to other things. that strategy of saying well i have work to do for the american people, that was pioneered by richard nixon and to a greater extent by bill clinton who had a lot more success with it. martha: in nixon's case it didn't work obviously. he had some rehabilitation, much later on in his career. go ahead, doug. >> clinton had one benefit and frankly monica, it is something that republicans have to be careful about, which is republican overreaching. the republicans in 1998 were

so obsessed with impeachment that our slogan of progress, not partisanship worked. with bob dole having said the republican party needs to be closed for repairs, i would caution unless the republicans advocate and articulate a positive agenda, whether conservative or centrist, they run the risk of the same thing happening. martha: but here's the trick. as you were saying president obama has presented himself in many ways as a different kind of president, different kind of politician. but the opposite what we're saying to acknowledge it all. to say, i really want to know what happened at the irs. so i'm opening this investigation. i really want to know what happened with these reporters. i'm digging in and figuring it out. he has give, some say lip service to these ideas. if you do that, do you draw more attention to the scandals themselves and so, and not only -- >> not guilty. that only works if you're not --. martha: you know it doesn't lead anywhere. >> you or anybody even close

to you. you say i had no idea this was going to happen or was happening. you get it all out. get it early. preempt criticism. fire people, you take responsibility and make it actually mean something. you man up. now, if you're guilty or the that people around you are guilty or had knowledge of this, then you tend to go down this more conventional path. it worked for bill clinton, what you're saying doug, here is where i disagree, when you're talking about over reach, that is largely a function of the left-wing media because they have had this line, trying to intimidate the republicans. it is not going down an investigative path. oh, you're going to overreach. you never hear that when republican scandals taking place as there were some minor scandals in 2006, you never heard the media or the democrats saying, oh they're over reaching. no, they ran like wild on the whole idea of republican scandals. culture of corruption. >> there is one other problem. republican party ratings are so low now that the american people are more inclined to view them as overreaching and being overly partisan

than the democrats, but monica's right about one thing, let's be very clear. the bill clinton said the single biggest mistake he made in his presidency appointing a special prosecutor to look at white water. president obama will do everything he can to resist special prosecutors in multiple and several investigations. martha: before you both go, in both cases what ended up happening in some of these issues it led to people who were close to them or people who they knew or things they didn't admit to knowing initially. do you think that the white house is connected or nose more about the irs scandal, that may be, for example, the most prominent of three in terms of that? do you think that the campaign or the white house knew more? >> this is what these investigations are for. when you have an approach that is sort of a drip, drip, drip, approach where neither the president nor anybody around him are actually answering questions forthrightly, it only begs more questions, probing, investigations and that is what this is for.

it could very well lead to the white house. maybe it doesn't. but it creates a perception of guilt, the longer you let this go. martha: as we were sayingings, you get out in front of it say i had nothing to do with it, none of my people had nothing to do with it or you don't. >> their strategy, quickly, martha, keep the president away, white house away, irs is irs, benghazi old news and ap is the justice department. president is doing sergeantly what monica said, keeping it away, denying, denying. martha: we'll see. thanks so much, great window in these situations. thank you. >> thank you. bill: 20 minutes past the hour, cashing in from behind bars. a jaw-dropping report showing how much some prison inmates are collecting in personal benefits. martha: we're just talking about this. the benghazi investigations are continuing to widen, asking for the e-mails now between the state department and the president's campaign, a new freedom of information request has gone out this morning. more on that coming up.

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martha: there has been a deadly crash in georgia. a tractor trailer plowed through astorefront. investigators say the truck was speeding down the highway when it crossed the opposite lane, tore across a strip mall parking lot. police say that the 66-year-old truck driver died in this accident but ody else was injure it was unclear whether the driver suffered perhaps from a medical condition. bill: there are new developments this morning into the investigation what happened in benghazi the republican national committee requesting all information sent between the state department and the president's re-election campaign between the day of the attack on september 11th and election day in november. this includes any documents

with the words libya and benghazi between the state department and the white house. we have the former spokesman for the last four u.s. ambassadors to the u.n. welcome out there there in los angeles. what do you make at first blush about this request? >> my first thought why hasn't "the new york times", "washington post" or out media outlets thought of this? it is an amazing development for the rnc to say, what did we know, who talked about this at the campaign, if anybody, and let's try to get to the bottom and figure out of exactly what happened so it doesn't happen again. bill: you wonder where it could lead. reince priebus said this. we certainly hope political consideration did not come into play when the administration decided what to tell the american people but the administration's changing answers raise valid concerns we don't know the full story. when he talks about political considerations there are many people who believe that the talking points were amended strictly to protect the campaign and

politics that were involved in that year. >> there is no question. you go back and look at the facts. from the moment that mitt romney kind of talked about some of these issues, immediately you had all of the reporters covering the romney campaign and the obama campaign parroting what the obama campaign had put out. they immediately wanted to say this is politics. you know, it is ironic that on september 11th, we have a crisis developing. it is a september 11th, 2012 crisis and yet immediately it is called politics. and this is the mantra i think that the media tried to put out and it is clear that this came straight from the obama campaign. we need to figure out, did the obama campaign coordinate with the state department. bill: i apologize for the interruption but a lot of articles and stories suggest that the tragedy in benghazi could not have been avoided. what do you think of that?

>> well, okay, let's assume for a second that maybe it couldn't have been avoided. i do think that there is a very serious couple of questions that we need to ask, one, really, you know, who missed the warning signs? what we do know bill from cables that were leaked is that ambassador chris stevens and others were asking for security. so someone ignored those requests. someone missed this developing storm. the second question is, once the storm really developed into a full-blown crisis who called off the help? we don't know the answers to those. simply put in the last hearing we found cheryl mills, we discovered that cheryl mills, who is a political appointee for hillary clinton, cheryl mills was making calls to those people on the ground who were talking to republican legislators and showing that she was very upset they were talking to republicans. the hillary clinton camp

made this political. victoria nuland watered undo the talking points. cheryl mills put pressure on people who knew the truth and tried to get them to clam up. we still don't know about tom nides, who is hillary clinton's deputy and by the way married to the cnn deputy bureau chief, virginia mostly, we don't know what tom nides's role is and the media seemed completely disinterested in trying to figure out the facts. bill: we'll see if the e-mail requests for documents goes anywhere. there are possibilities that these are discussions that take place face-to-face over the telephone and in the end something may not be written down that may lead you to the right answer. rick grenell, thank you, from los angeles. we'll see you real soon. >> thanks, bill. bill: martha. martha: you wanted to know the answer to this question. why is lois lerner, one of the key players of the irs scandal sit getting a paycheck from u.s. taxpayers? should she could be suspended until the investigation is complete? we'll answer that question next. bill: certainly will. food stamps are a booming business for some states but

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bill: ph-p a ever the scanned tal rock being the i.r.s. being followed up by calls for a special prosecutor. polling finds that overwhelming

support for that idea, check that out 76% one a special prosecutor to look at the agency's improper targeting are conservative groups. john fund us with us. welcome. i guess the natural inclination would be to say go ahead and get a expression property kwaouter. is that necessarily a good thing or bad thing in this case do you believe? >> we had very mixed results with independent prosecutors in the reagan years and in the clinton years and the law finally lapsed, and nobody cried about that. i do think the poll indicates the american people are suspicious of a justice department effectively investigating itself and its closes allies to the obama administration. a special counsel, which is similar to what patrick fitzgerald was in the valley plane case during the burke administration might be called for. this is someone who has their own resources, their own line of command. they wouldn't have to say mother may i to the attorney general at

every step of the way. they'd be under the executive branch think i think is constitutionally proper but they would exercise a degree of independence. bill: if that's the case would that freeze everything that is going on in congress? everybody involved here would they clam up and say there is an investigation underway and i don't have to say a thing? >> there is going to be an investigation. the question is what kind of an investigation and what kind of credibility it has. if it's conducted by the justice department that investigation will begin right now. the question is, do people have cough cough dense in it? congress will proceed. i think they'll issue subpoenas and be able to collect a lot of information regardless of an investigation. remember, much of what happened here isn't criminal, it's unethical, it's ridiculous, it's absurd, it's worry so many but not necessarily criminal. so you can still find out a lot. >> i see. okay that brings us back to lois lerner now still making a salary sitting at home. that brings us to bya because you asked.

why can't her salary be placed in escrow pending the outcome of a criminal investigation? certainly no government employee should be paid for doing nothing. is that a possibility? could you do that? >> the federal government workers have the strongest job protections of almost everybody and one of the most powerful unions representing them. the procedures are very clear and fixed. you can't go outside the box. she is on administrative leave right now, she has not formally been fired. she collects her paycheck, i think it's about $177,000 a year. if she is fired she can go to the regional appeal office of the merit system protection board. my understanding is her paycheck continues through the first appeal office. if she loses there she goes onto the big merit protection board and in most cases she won't be paid there. but if she is reinstated, and that happens a lot, she has no previous record and exceptional reviews from her boss at the i.r.s. and others if she is

reinstated she gets all of her back pay plus interest. >> in 20120.12% of federal employees were fired. >> it's more likely you die than get fired. >> the president could demand her resignation. >> his political employee did demand it. he called her and and said we want you to resign. she said no, i want my paycheck. bill: it's one thing to say no but to the president? >> that's how powerful federal workers are. martha: there has been agreeing controversy over food stamps. some states like florida encourage people to sign up for the entitlement program because it does pump billions of dollars into the state economy but it also adds to the exploding national debt and critics say to a culture of dependency on food

stamps. steve harrigan joins us live from miami. good morning, steve. >> good morning, martha. florida has been very aggressive in trying to make sure any of its citizens who are eligible for federal aid money get every penny they deserve. but not everyone thinks that is a good idea. >> milk, bread. >> by the third week of of the month this woman's food stamps has run out leaving her $9 in cash and seven people to feed. >> the food stamps is along with the child support. >> the 50-year-old mother who entered the u.s. by swimming across the rio grande has funded house, medication and $700 a month in social security. >> when you really, really need it go look for help before it's too late. >> that message is heard in florida where expert navigators now help clients apply online for multiple federal aid programs at the the same time.

the goal of the privately funded recruiters is to increase federal aid to florida by one billion dollars a year. >> many of the services might be assistance with rent, assistance with electricity, besides the basic needs like food stamps, or medicaid. >> others say efforts to expand uncapped federal aid programs threaten to create a culture of dependency. >> government efforts to expand these programs like food stamps has broken down a traditional american reservation to not want to go on government handouts. >> reporter: food stamps is an example of one government program where the spending has exploded. it's quadrupled over the past decade from 20 to $800 billion $880 billion a year. bill: texas rangers came, check this out.

the grounds crew is battling the pouring rain. martha: gosh, look at this. bill: and the wind, and the tarp to cover the field. martha: wow. bill: security guards even jumping in to help cover the field. high wind lifting the tarp 20 feet off the ground. dragging crew members and lifting them off their feet. the entire inch field became soaked. the game was eventually called. a for effort, right? they really tried. martha: it could be dangerous. the tarps are huge, you know, i guess the one guy got completely knocked off his feet by it. a tough night on the job those folks. lawmakers are getting involved in a mother's fight to save her little girl. their new request and will it make any difference in the life of this child? >> it's, you know, unreal to me that they are saying they can't quantify my daughter's illness when her daughters can kwan ta fivquantify it, they told me thewe are in the final weeks

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bill: a new report shows the new jersey prison system is very good to its inmates. inmates there collecting millions of dollars in benefits. that report shows the state paid out $23 million over a nearly two-year period including $11 million in jobless benefits. tough to hold down a job when you're behind bars. when finally brought to light

the garden state says they started cracking down and have saved around $235 million. martha: back to this story now, two lawmakers are fighting to help bypass a federal regulation that prevents this dying ten-year-old girl from getting a lung transplant that she desperately needs. sarah is her name, and she is suffering from cystic fibrosis, and the doctors have said that she has only weeks to live at this point. because of her age she can only receive a donor lung after all the adult candidates have first had an opportunity to receive that lung. i interviewed her mother yesterday, and she claims that the process is not fair. >> any parent on the listing thinks that this must be a fair and equitable list, so you don't really think that your child is going to be discriminated against. i felt hike we got on, we got in

well in advance, as soon as she qualified for an organ transplant we knew there was going to be a wait and we got on the list. martha: what a burden of, you know, love, and of managing this situation for this poor mom whose child is in this awful compromised position. peter johnson jr. has been working on this and he's a fox news legal analyst. i know you met little sara. >> i did. >> and spoke with her and saw her. the effort that is underway by these members of congress, including senator too man senator toomey, is there hope for that? there is hope. the law should be with sara ten years old dying of cystic fibrosis who is literally being strapb strangled by regulation. i spent a half hour with her. one of of the most serious, smart young women i've ever met in my entire life. there is a sense of powerless necessary that we feel in america today, the federal government through the boards they have created said that children should be subjected to a double standard, that children

have less rights, that sicker children have to go to the end of the line, that healthier adults get the lungs before the children are even considered, and that's what the family is fighting for. i spoke to a dr. sweet who helps make the regulations, i tried to speak to a guy named dr. roberts, he wouldn't come to the phone, and they are stuck in this kind of dark ages mentality that they can't even rationalize. i said to dr. sweet i said what is the statistical basis by which you are excluding children under 12 years old but giving them to healthier adults? he said well we couldn't come up with a statistical model to determine childrens' likelihood of getting a lung and whether they should get a lung from age zero to 111 because there is not enough of them. well it's nonsense, martha, it's absolute nonsense. of it i goes back to the 18th and 19th century in this country in terms of child labor and not having rights for children. martha: when i first heard this

story the logical argument to me would have been that, you know, come path built for organs is a huge issue, i thought maybe in these younger children the adult lung really doesn't work, but it doesn't sound like that that is true. >> no it's not true because a child can be given what is called a low bar transplant, a piece, the lower portion of a lung of both lungs and that can satisfy their need. what the federal government and these doctors who make these decisions have done is say we are not even going to score the children, we are going to say priority one, priority two. if young sarah was scored she'd have a stkoe score in the 60s on a one hundred scale. every day americans are getting lungs, adults that have scores in the 30s, and 40s. who is sicker, sarah the ten-year-old, or the adults that are getting the lungs? so it's a matter of fairness. the family says, i don't want my daughter to jump the line, but i want the sickest americans -- martha: change in policy.

>> i want the sickest americans to be treated first whether children or adults. it's a matter of equal protection under the law, and i hope they do go to court and enforce this if they can't get satisfaction from kathleen sebelius, who can make the determination and order these doctors -- martha: has she responded? >> she hasn't responded yet. i don't know what kind of formal plea has been made to her, but i make it to her as we sit here today, look at this family in philadelphia pennsylvania at the children's hospital and say as matter of fairness what can we do to help them? do they deserve equal protection under the law or should she become a stepchild who dies, not in anonymity but in the public glare. that will be a great national embarrassment if sarah dies because we ignored her in this country. martha: a question of age discrimination and the cons taougsthe constitution. martha: thank you.

bill: we listened to her mother when she was on the program with you. 11 minutes before the hour jenna lee "happening now" right now. what is going on. jenna: a big show coming up for you. days before the trial starts george zimmerman's legal team is making a plea for help. what do they want from the public, from us? we'll tell you whether or not it will impact their case. it's been exactly one year since our first live conversation with wounded warrior travis mills. last year he was alternate the beginning of his recovery after losing both legs and arms in afghanistan. wait until you hear whether he is this year. we'll speak to him live. a team of u.s. airmen have become the first group of active duty servicemen to climb mt.~everest, one of these high-flying climbers stopped by and tells us not only how it felt at summit every rest but why he then did 30 pushups apartment the top. bill: just showing off. jenna: 30 pushups. can you even do it during this commercial break? 30 pushups. bill: because it was there. looking forward to it, jenna.

see you at the top of the hour. jenna: sounds good. bill: america's greatest generation back in the skies providing quite an example for young americans. have a listen. >> i feel like missing the crews, we were like brothers, a pretty tight bond because we lived through pretty horrific experiences

bill: how do you fee fine the new economy thriving businesses dominating the air travel industry by operating airports better than the airlines. senior national correspondent john roberts live in atlanta. it has a pretty big airport itself. what did you find out? >> reporter: we spent some time with the air corp ink company. it's one of the fastest growing

job creators in the country. 2002 they had zero employees, today they have 12,000, they are creating another 12,000 jobs in the next five to search years. the secret to success has been do more with less. they've got a wired in mobile workforce can be anywhere in the airport within minutes, much more efficient than when the airlines used to do the jobs. tom mo r-rbg anroano is the ceo. >> they outsourced more of their baggage handling, ramp jobs. we match demand with supply and move them to where the work needs to be accomplished. >> reporter: ten years ago they had one bus contract at atlanta's airport, they are now in 96 airports across the country and 12 in the usuals k. bill: is there a downside 0 this. >> reporter: they say they have lots of jobs and opportunity for advancement here but by and large the jobs really are lower

paying jobs. some economists say they are lower quality jobs than when the airlines used to do the work. >> the air serve business model is clearly successful and it's compelled by conditions in the contemporary marketplace. but it's also a symptom of what is wrong with our economy, it's simply not creating the kinds of jobs that will stimulate the kind of growth that will propel america forward. >> reporter: that said the airlines were shedding these jobs anyway, at least someone is picking them up. anyone interested can a play online by the way at air serve corrp.com. martha: it's the big story of the morning, he is facing suspicion of perjury now, and attorney general eric holder's effort to extend and olive branch to the media not going that well so far this morning. we'll hear more from the several media outlets invited to meet with him, and how all that is going when we come back.

martha: a great story as we still have memorial day in our minds. a world war ii pilot reliving his memory 69 years later. his name is chester bowers replying in a bomber over the skies of idaho. he flew 35 mission ins europe including due on d day. a private airline association made his most recent flight possible and chester said he couldn't pass up the chances specially since he had his

grandson with him for the entire time. what a great opportunity for was that. thank you for his service. bill: thank you, chester. martha: thanks for being with us today. bill: see you on friday. martha: bye-bye. jenna: brand-new stories and breaking news. jon: there are new calls for attorney general eric holder to step down as an investigation is underway to find out whether he lied to congress. the latest on the growing scandal surrounding the ag. plus, terrifying moments at accompanies could he, a woman goes after two sheriff's deputies with a knife and scissors. how this all ended, ahead. and a new record, on top of the world the air force takes mount everest, we'll tell you about it "happening now." the attorney general of the united states in the hot seat under fire for his testimony in the reporter snooping scandal.