>> as soon as they get over this wave. >> can we have some beach boys music? >> i've surfed before but i could use a lift kind of propping you up? i can get up for like a second and that's it. >> thank you for joining us. "america live" starts right now. we start with a fox news alert on some significant new polls suggesting a growing crisis of confidence in our government and our political leaders. welcome to "america live," i'm allison cam rot that. as the obama administration tries to deal with a string of political controversies, americans are beginning to voice serious doubts about the credibility of this administration and our government as a whole. according to brand new fox news polling, 68% believe the white house is not telling the truth about the targeting of the president's political foes by the irs. 63% believe the obama justice department seized reporters'

records for political reasons. 62% think the administration's nsa phone surveillance program constitutes an unacceptable and alarming invasion of privacy rights. chris is host of "power play" on foxne foxlive.com. is it possible that americans are not seeing this as one case after another or a whole umbrella problem of trust in government? >> let's put it this way. as it relates to barack obama, president of the united states when in april of 2009, shortly after he had taken office, he enjoyed a 45-point advantage on the question of whether or not he was personally honest, whether or not he was personally trustworthy. it was a blowout. those numbers came down over time. but now in this poll for the first time, he's at break even,

48% say he is, 48% say he isn't. and also, a majority of americans believe he is either as bad or worse on the questions of transparency and openness as his predecessor. so it's starting to ak crete to him. it's gathering around him. i think you can get pretty close to calling it a crisis of confidence. >> what is so interesting is, of course, president obama campaigned the first time around on running the most trustworthy administration, the most transparent administration in history. so does the white house have a plan to deal with this crisis of confidence? >> well, they're going to try to wait it out. they're going to hope that, for example, republicans will do the heavy lifting when it comes to defending his nsa program so the president can sort of place on that one. that seems to be the course. they're schmoozing reporters to push back from these stories. it sounds like they're bunkered, like they're going to try to ride this out and hope some of

the stink comes off so the president can try to preserve something in the tank as far as viability and credibility goes as we get into the fall for a huge budget fight. i'd point this out, and i think this is probably the most significant thing in all of it. barack obama is a politician who had great success by talking about what he said were bad motives in his opponents. if we think just back to mitt romney, it was a brutal takedown on mitt romney's character, trustworthiness and integrity. there is some aptness that he is now facing those same problems as these scandals and problems mount around him. >> chris, i want to show you an interesting graph we found from the pew research center. it looked back as trust in government all the way back to 1958 to today. and basically what you can see -- it's really fascinating -- back in 1960 or

'65 i guess, 73% of people, americans, trusted the government. today 73%, the exact same number, distrust the government. >> well, can you blame them? things have not exactly been on a smooth run around here over that period. if you go back to watergate and everything since, there's a lot of reason. now you have, as you pointed out, very rightly at the outset, a xoupding effect. when you have the irs, when you have kathleen sebelius raising money from people she's supposed to be regulating, when you have the president's former tom aides going out and working for big corporations to pedal access and on and on and on, it's a reasonable conclusion for americans to reach that he's not different, but instead part of the same and part of that continuation. >> does it help when the president comes out and talks about it, when the president addresses some of these things head on, do polls show it helps and comforts americans?

>> we'll find out if that ever happens. if that ever occur, we will know. the president by and large -- i'm mostly kidding. by and large the president doesn't address these things too head-on. on the irs he has bitten off a piece here and piece there. on nsa he said the people need to trust the government. yes, what he can do and what presidents before him have done is have a frank discussion with the american people about something. grou to the oval office, sit across the resolute desk and say, let me level with you, american people. the one place where he most needs to do that, the nsa, where he needs to make the case for this is the one that has the most political peril for him because he will anger his base hugely if he were to do that. >> it does seem like the time is now. it does seem, correct me if i'm wrong, chris, it's time to hear something from the president. as you suggested, they may try to wait this out, they may try to ignore it and hope the american public has a short

attention span. sometimes we've proven that we do. but with the cumulative effect of all this, is it time, does the white house think, to say something? >> depends on how much he cares about these programs. if they are as important as he says they are, he needs to come out in short order, own them, brand them and say this is me and it's necessary. if he doesn't, if he does what they've done on the war in afghanistan that has come to a very sad end and other initiatives, the drone war and other things, if he does that and lets the republicans fight it out amongst themselves and for them to be the defenders of unpopular projects inside his own administration, i warn you that, if you think this is a good idea, the next president may be the one who comes along to take these things away because the libertarian moment is coming. >> chris stir walt, always great to talk to you. thanks. >> you bet. on capitol hill, outgoing fbi director robert mueller is being challenged on a host of

issues from everything from the boston bombings to the controversy at the nsa. with one democratic lawmaker saying he was worried about america becoming a, quote, surveillance state, chief krongal correspondent mike emanuel is on capitol hill. we've heard a lot of headlines. >> powerful accusations about how the nsa phone program has helped with terror investigations and how if it had been available, it might have helped leading up to the days of the september 11 terror attack. saying the leak haves hurt national security and he got an earful about privacy concerns. >> it's my fear that we are on the verge of becoming a surveillance state, collecting billions of electronic records on law-abiding americans every

single day. >> these programs have been conducted consistent with the constitution and the laws of the united states. the programs have been carried out with extensive oversight from courts, independent inspectors general and congress. >>. >> reporter: there's also been plenty of discussion about the benghazi terror attack which of course claimed the fives of four americans. there's been some suggestion the investigation has been stalled. mueller was asked if all necessary and reasonable resources to apprehend those responsible are being used, and the fbi director said yes. then the fbi director was asked why those responsible haven't been captured yet. >> explain it in a couple ways. yes, it is unusual to have such a cold record. as i articulated before, this is a unique situation. we've had embassy attacks before. we've had our colleagues in law enforcement and the government helping us. there is no government to help us in libya. we don't have colleagues we can go to, so it is unique. >> reporter: mueller has taken

heat from republican lawmakers who want details about the criminal investigation looking into the irs's targeting of conservative groups. he didn't have a whole lot of details, and so there's been some frustration on that front. allison? >> mike emanuel, thanks so much for that update. meanwhile director mueller isn't the only one devoting scandal of the nsa, senator rand paul is hosting a news conference shortly. senator paul announced earlier this week he's considering a class action lawsuit on the matter. we'll bring you the news from this event as soon as we get it. fox weather alert for you now on this massive storm bringing high winds, large hail and heavy rain to a huge section of the east coast. as we've been tracking the system today, we're getting growing reports of trees downed, roads closed and thousands of people in the dark.

chief meteorologist rick reichmuth, is this as bad as forecasters predicted? >> yesterday was very bad and we'll see more severe weather heat up, a lot of rain, big flooding concerns as well. this is the last 24-hour loop of the storm. it exploded here yesterday evening across parts of wisconsin, iowa and illinois and through the evening hours moved across iowa. very strong winds with it as well. today the severe weather farther to the south than initially anticipated. this area of red had been farther to the north including pennsylvania. the storm prediction center moved that farther to the south. philly in much better shape, d.c. and baltimore as well. now parts of north carolina including raleigh-durham, over towards winston salem and norfolk, virginia and richmond potentially dealing with some of that severe weather. i think a few tornadoes as we go into the afternoon hours. two severe thunderstorm watch boxes in effect. one expires at 2:00 for parts of

kentucky and west virginia. a new one has been issued for parts of tennessee, kentucky again, virginia and maryland. that goes until 7:00 p.m. tonight. that's where i think as the next couple hours go we'll see severe weather. we see this now cutting right across parts of the appalachians. incredibly heavy rain here, allisyn, ground that's very saturated, so we have flood watches and warnings in effect for 14 states. tonight some areas as much as five inches of rain. ali? >> can you turn the rain off? >> i can. by tomorrow afternoon and saturday, it looks great. the situation in syria is getting a closer look today after former president clinton suggested mr. obama's approach may leave him looking like a, quote, wuss. ambassador bolton is next on what's really going on with these remarks. google is making new efforts to prove it was not helping the government spy on our computers.

today we'll show you why some people are a little sceptical of that claim. the president promised the government would be there for people in the texas city of west after that explosion killed more than a dozen people and destroyed hundreds of homes. why did fema just deny these folks disaster funds? we'll investigate. >> we'll be there even after the cameras leave and after the attention turns elsewhere. your country will remain ever ready to help you recover and rebuild and reclaim your community. m thinking about chin, m thinking about chin, brazil, india. the world's a big place. i want to be a part of it. ishares international etfs. emerging markets and single countries. find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing.

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are mass evacuations as three major wildfires burn across colorado. reports of nearly 10,000 people told to get out. we're hearing at least 360 homes have been destroyed. these are pictures from colorado springs. yikes, where this house was

completely engulfed in flames. every single u.s. forest service firefighting plane is now in use. wildfires are also burning in new mexico, oregon and california. so in washington the white house came out a short time ago defending the president's policy on syria after the u.n. announced an estimated 93,000 people have been killed in this conflict. just last night former president bill clinton aggressively breaking with president obama on his syria policy, speaking at private event in new york city, clinton warned the president not to risk looking like a, quote, wuss. if you refuse to act and you cause a calamity, the one thing you can't say is oh, my god, two years ago there was a poll saying 80% of you were against it. you'd look like a total fool. end quote. john bolton is a former

ambassador to the u.n. and a fox news contributor. what do you make of former president bill clinton breaking with president obama's policy on syria so publicly? >> my first thought was this was the beginning of hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign to show distance between the policy that she would pursue in syria and perhaps more broadly verses the obama administration. i don't think this was entirely accidental on former president clinton's part, and the implication he's giving is that president obama is weak and indecisive, all of which is true. >> issue with syria has never been an easy one. it's a tough one. had we intervened earlier -- let me start with what they say today. the administration today says it's hard to arm the rebels because we don't know who the rebels are. it's possible al qaeda has infiltrated. do you agree with that caution?

>> i believe al qaeda has infiltrated. you could have said exactly the same thing 2 1/2 years ago, and if the administration back then had identified leaders of the opposition that it could verify shared western values, could generate popular support, would commit to destroy syria's chemical weapons if they won and acted then on that information, you could be in a different situation. that's not what they did. they wandered around and drifted for 2 1/2 years, and now we are in a much more difficult situation. i think the administration was hoping this would go away one way or the other after it overcame the previous biases of some people like both secretary of state clinton and secretary of state kerry today who thought the assad regime was somebody they could deal with. >> are you saying that, had we gotten involved two years ago, that somehow would have prevented the russians and iranians and hezbollah from

getting involved as well? >> no. i think they would have been involved. i think the main reason the obama administration did not want to support the opposition was precisely because of iran's support for the assad regime and possibly russia's as well. i think the administration was mainly focused on iran's nuclear weapons program and the prospect they have sought in vein for 4 1/2 years of finding way to negotiate with iran over that program. i think the white house feared if they got into the syria struggle, it would end any possibility of a negotiated solution with iran and that they didn't want to give up. i think that's delusional on their part to think you can negotiate with iran, but i think that's what motivated them. >> one of the things bill clinton said in this closed event, there were no cameras there, but as we understand it he said you've got to at least try, you've got to at least try, when something like this, on this magnitude is happening, you have to at least try.

however, as he alluded to, public opinion polls disagree with that. the majority of americans do not think that we should intervene with syria. >> i think presidents have to make national security decisions based on their assessment of what american interests are. i don't think public opinion polls, frankly, ought to play any role in that at all. i think the public expects the president to act in our interest. and being driven by polls is bad enough for leadership in any area of presidential responsibility, but it can be fatal in the area of national security. i think the real question was the president thought the deal with iran over the nuclear weapons program was a higher priority than syria. as i say, i think that was wrong from the outset. but it's clear here syria is simply a part of a larger problem. and the larger problem is the regime in iran. that's the regime we need to overthrow. >> very quickly, if bill clinton

had an ulterior motive if this was political moon ufrg to set up hillary clinton for 2016, is this a point of difference that she had with president obama and could she campaign on that? >> sure. i think this is a way for bill clinton to set up the contrast without hillary having to go out front on it yet. we'll see what happens next. i think you're going to see this pattern from now until 2016. is hillary the candidate or is bill the candidate? >> ambassador john bolton, thanks so much. as lawyers get closer to seating a jury in the george zimmerman murder trial, judge alex fer regard explains why he thinks race will be a big factor for both sides and what the prosecution has to do to get a conviction on these charges. plus police in one state may soon be asking for your license, registration and cell phone as lawmakers consider giving cops the power to grab your phone without a warrant.

we'll have the motive for that. the latest fox news polls find that 68% of americans don't believe the administration is telling the truth about the targeting of the irs. clients are always learning more to make their money do more. (ann) to help me plan my next move, i take scottrade's free, in-branch seminars... plus, their live webinars. i use daily market commentary to improve my strategy. and my local scottrade office guides my learning every step of the way. because they know i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade... ranked "highest in customer loyalty for brokerage and investment companies."

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. a blind activist who escaped house arrest in china is reportedly being booted from new york university after pressure from chinese officials. the "new york post" reports that the chinese officials who okayed plans for an nyu campus in shanghai apparently did not approve of the active it's presence on the nyu campus. nyu says the deal has nothing to do with his departure and added his stay there was never meant to be long term.

there's growing controversy now over a proposed bill in new jersey. this would allow police officers to confiscate and search your cell phone if you're involved in a car accident. trace gallagher is live from our west coast bureau. is this about looking at content or just to see if you were on the phone? >> they go into the whole phone so they can check out when the phone was active, not exactly who you were talking to but if you were on it at the time. it's being sponsored by a republican state lawmaker who says, if police can look at your cell phone, they can tell if you were on it and then that would tell them if it was a contributing factor in the crash. here he is. >> we're talking about a situation where there's been an accident. it would be no different than -- let's assume if there was a bottle of alcohol laying on the floor of the car or anything else that would indicate a distraction that may have helped to contribute to why there was

an accident. >> he adds that police can already subpoena your phone records to see if the phone was active at the time of the crash. this speeds up the process. the aclu of new jersey says no, th our state and federal constitutions require probable cause before authorizing a search. cell phones contain highly personal information that must be protected from government intrusion. the national motorist association says they don't think the bill would work. their quote is, here is the bottom line, if you went through with what the bill is supposedly allowing, you still can't determine if the person with the phone actually had a distraction that contributed to the crash. clearly they are against the bill. if it passes, the bill would also increase the penalties from being on the phone or texting while driving.

ali? >> thanks so much, trace. the latest fox polls find 68% of americans do not believe the obama administration is telling the truth about the irs targeting the president's political enemies. what does this mean for the president and what about his pledge to find those responsible and hold them accountable. the president also promised the government would be there after a massive explosion killed and injured people in west texas. why did fema just de nye those folks disaster funds? >> without this money from fema, we haven't got a town. if this happened at a foreign country someplace, we'd be sending money over there.

as lawmakers demand answers from the irs over its targeting of conservative groups, we're getting a look at what voters think about this controversy. according to a new fox news poll, two-thirds think the irs targeted conservatives as part of a high-level operation to punish political opponents. just 23% think it was a mistake by a handful of low-level irs staffers. as far as the obama administration's role in all this, 40% believe the administration knew about it but did not initiate it. 28% think the administration was directly involved. 24% think the president's team had absolutely nothing to do with the irs's actions. chief national correspondent jim angle is live in washington with

a look at how the scandal unfolded. >> hello, alisyn. as early as march 2010, just months before the midterm elections, the irs started investigating groups applying for tax-exempt status if they had tea party, patriot or similar words in their names. by july of 2010, the unit in charge of tax-exempt designations was told to be, quote, on the lookout for tea party applications. meanwhile president obama repeatedly criticized conservative groups that already had tax-exempt status calling them shadowy, insidious and even worse. >> this is not just a threat to democrats. this is a threat to our democracy. >> when he did that and was backed up by this amen chorus of democrats, it's like a bunch of people blowing a dog whistle and people inside the irs heard it. >> by january of 2012 irs criteria for targeting conservative groups had been broadened to, quote,

organizations involved in limiting expanding government, educating on the constitution and bill of rights. tea party groups long complained about irs delays along with improper requests for donor lists. it wasn't until may of 2013 with an inspector general's report coming that irs official lois lerner confessed the irs had gone too far and apologized. she argued, however, it was only because one irs office was swamped by a surge of applications, though at the time tea parties were targeted in 2010, the number of applications were actually falling. officials in washington insisted the improper practices originated in cincinnati. >> people in cincinnati decided let's start grouping these cases. let's centralize these cases. >> but workers in cincinnati told a congressional investigators they were directed by washington on tea party applications. one irs worker there says she was furious when they tried to

pass the blame to her and others saying it was like a nuclear strike on us. alisyn? >> jim angle, thanks so much for all that context. meanwhile, as of now, not a single person we know of has been held accountable for the irs targeting of conservative groups. we heard about early resignations and people put on paid leave or moved around, but zero firings. if you want an idea of why people are so skeptical about this irs probe, listen to this exchange. moments ago this happened as republican lawmaker jim jordan of ohio questioned fbi director mueller about how the justice department investigation is going. >> based on everything i've seen, quoting mr. cummings, the case is solved. >> which case? >> the irs scandal. >> the irs case? >> the irs case is currently under investigation and basically has just started. >> what can you tell us -- you started a month ago. what can you tell us about this? have you found any -- found the two rogue agents, have you discovered who those people are?

>> needless to say, because it's under investigation, i can't give out any details. >> can you tell me how many agents, investigators you've assigned to the case? >> may be able to do that, but would have to get back to you. >> can you tell me who the lead investigator is? >> off the top of my head, no. >> the most important issue in the country in the last six weeks, you don't know who is heading up the case? >> at this juncture, no. >> we'd like to know how many people you've assigned to look into this? >> i haven't had a recent briefing. i haven't had a recent briefing. >> you don't know who is leading the case? >> i do not know the lead agent. >> do you know if you've talked to any of the victims, have you talked to any of the groups who were targeted by their government? have you met with any of the tea party folks since may 14, 2013? >> i don't know what the status of interviews are by the team that's on it. >> let's debate all of this, shall we? julie rue ginn ski served as a

political adviser to the late frank lautenberg. mark tea son is a former speech writer for president george w. bush. welcome to both of you. julie, let me start with you, should fbi director mueller been able to give a few more of those answers about the investigation into the irs scandal? >> it is an ongoing investigation, so i think his code of conduct and i believe the law, i'm not sure about that, probably dictates he can't go into too much detail. it is being investigated. i'm glad it's being investigated. i think we need to investigate the hell out of this until we figure out who is responsible for it. in terms of trying to embarrass him by asking him the names of specific agents investigating this, congressman jordan thinks this is the most important thing going on before the country. i happen to think the boston bombing is something the fbi is probably focused on as well and a bunch of other things. i'll give him slack for not knowing the specific name of the specific agent. >> mark, should we know more

about this point after a month? >> he just admitted he hasn't been briefed on it for a month. it doesn't look like they're spending a lot of time on this. we've got a situation now where almost 70 pps of the country thinks barack obama either knew or initiated targeting of conservatives at the irs, including, almost 50% of democrats think he knew or initiated the targeting. i don't know if he knew, but why is it that so many americans and so many democrats think he did? maybe it's because this is a president who said back in october 2009 we're going to punish our enemies and reward our friends who stand with us on important issues, a president who tried to create an enemy's list by issuing an executive order requiring anyone with a federal contract to disclose political contributions, his own economic adviser claimed to know what was in the tax returns of coke industries and the senate democratic leader claimed to know what was in mitt romney's tax returns.

even if he didn't direct this directly, he's created a climate for the irs to think it's okay to punish our enemies and reward our friends. >> i want to ask both of you about who has been held accountable for the irs sc acting commissioner steve miller resigned after we find out about this. the head of the irs tax-exempt division that was the root of all this after lois lerner named joseph grant, he has stepped down. the irs -- one irs employee in cincinnati has been reassigned, and lois lerner, of course, has been placed on administrative leave. as we now know she is still collecting all of her paycheck. julie, is that good enough? should americans feel satisfied with that? >> i think we should let the investigation take its course that the fbi is conducting. once we find out who is responsible, they should lose their jobs. as you well know after the nixon administration botched what they did with the urs, the law became such that the president can't get involved in firing people at

the irs. that's part of the watergate reforms we saw back in the '70s. once we find out who is responsible, and i think we all agree what went on was heinous, once we find out who was responsible, those people should go. to start calling for the heads of people without having all the information before us i think is premature and i think that's unprofessional. furthermore, you can't have the president of the united states getting involved in this because the law prohibits him from doing this. also from marc's previous quote, that's what the president said at a rally talking to latinos saying this is not the attitude you should have about punishing your enemies, rewarding your friends. i'm so sick of having that quote taken out of context especially when we know better that's not what he was saying at all. >> i gave you the context. >> no, you didn't. >> excuse me. hold on. let me say what i want to say here. the context is a president who tried to issue an executive

order that would force everybody who applied for a federal contract to disclose their donors, went out of the chamber of commerce and accused them of taking foreign money, that's the context for you, julie. here is the problem. >> go ahead. >> the problem is what's happened here is we have broken the fundamental trust between our government and the people. if you showed that statistic in the last half hour that showed that 73% of the american people don't trust their government. that has implications beyond the irs scandal. we now have a situation with the nsa disclosures where people don't trust the national security agency. i've been trying to defend the obama administration for a week and tell people big brother isn't listening to your phone calls and reading your e-mails. you know what people say? if the irs abused its powers, why should we trust the nsa? this scandal is harming national security because people don't trust their government in a situation where we're trying to defend the country from territory and it requires a trust because it's classified.

this has been incredibly damaging. >> guys, i only have a couple questions. julie, how long should we give this investigation? >> until we get to the bottom of it. >> are we talking months? >> i don't know. i don't work at the fbi so i don't have any idea how long these things take. >> sometimes what's in these investigations, they run out the clock. they hope the american public will forget about it and sometimes we do. >> i have to tell you, as a democrat i hope that's not the kaechlts i hope they get to the bottom of it quickly. i see no other way to find out who was held accountable other than the president breaking the laurks going in and saying i'm going to fire people indiscriminately because somebody's head needs to roll. he's legally prohibited from doing that. i hope the fbi does its job. >> marc, very quickly, how long are we going to give this? >> as long as it takes. they don't have to -- mueller doesn't have to know the name of the agent but he ought to at least show he's on top of it. it looked like he had no idea what was going on in the investigation of this.

this is a criminal act. this is about who committed the crime and putting them in jail. >> thanks so much. google is making new efforts to prove it was not helping the government spy on our compute ertz. today we'll show you why some folks are skeptical of that claim. as defense attorneys and prosecutors get closer to seating a jury in the george zimmerman trial, judge farrar explains why he thinks it will be a big deal for both sides and what the prosecution has to do to get a conviction. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios

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george zimmerman murder trial as a contentious jury selection process enters its fourth day. at least two dozen potential jurors have been interviewed so far, one of them thrown out after being caught lying the the court. while selecting a jury is an important step, our next guest thinks there could be an even bigger problem with this case once those jurors are picked. judge alex ferrer is host of the "judge alex" show on fox. nice to see you. >> pleasure seeing. what do you think the biggest problem with this case is? >> i see a few problems. first of all, i'm getting the sense some of these jurors aren't being forthcoming in their answers. it's kind of hard to believe that people from that community -- maybe across the country, but from that community haven't heard much of the case? even if you don't watch the news, you co-workers, neighbors, friends who do. we're being faced with people

who want to be on the jury, maybe because of the publicity, maybe like the casey anthony case, it gives you a lot of power. that's a recipe for disaster if you have jurors who later on have lied for the purpose of getting on the jury. you end up having to retry the case all over again. evidence by yesterday the gentleman who was lying about his real feelings about the case, and it comes out he had this facebook post where he was ranting and raving about justice will be served and had clearly taken a position. i would have held that juror in contempt and sent a message that this is not going to be tolerated. >> as you know, there's been a debate about how much of trayvon martin's past can be revealed in this case? are things like his text messages relevant, his photographs relevant? >> are they relevant? yes. are they admissible? no. florida law requires that reputation of the character of a witness is the way to put that

evidence in. you can't just put in evidence of the character -- i should say victim, not witness. of a victim by saying they did this and that in the past. everybody has something they've done in the past. florida law says if you're going to prove the character, for example, for violence, that trayvon martin has a character -- a violent character, the defense could put that in, but they have to put it in by reputation evidence because that is a broader analysis of the personality of the individual. you can't say they got in a fight, he made threatening statements or something like that. the prosecution could open the door and say they've never been in a fight before. the next thing you know is we have these text messages about him fighting. i don't think they're naive enough to make a mistake like that. >> as you know, there's been a lot of debate as to whether or not george zimmerman that night somehow profiled trayvon martin, somehow followed him or was alerted to him because of his race because trayvon martin was black. you say that there is a good way to determine whether or not

george zimmerman has a history as racist. >> i think it's a better way than the guesswork out there. before the trial started people are yelling yes, he was racist, no, he wasn't. and we don't know. everybody does profile. it's racial profiling. if you somebody in your friend's back yard coming out a window, you expect they're a burglar. that's a sense of profiling. he's called the police about 44 times. i think 15 or 20 of them were about suspicious people. he lives in a multiracial community. there's no way everybody he sees on the street that he does not know is black. if you look at that list of 15 or 20 and every time he called the police it was a black male, that's a pretty good statistic indicator that he may be motivated racially. if it turns out there are white males as well or hispanic males, he just may profile people he doesn't know as burglars which a lot of people to do. >> harder to prove that he does

it based on race. judge alex ferrer, thanks so much for your insight. >> always a pleasure, thank you. grow our panel breaks down problem for the obama administration and plus the government promised it would be there for the city of west texas. now, what? ♪ ♪

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>> fox news alert now, we are following a breaking story out of baton rouge, louisiana, where a chemical plant explosion has injured 33 people. no word yet what caused the blast that rocked the facility early this morning. people in the area were told to stay indoors in case dangerous chemicals were in the air. meanwhile, fema is now denying disaster funds to help rebuild west texas. you may remember the town was devastated back in april when an explosion at a fertilizer plant left 15 people dead. trace gallagher is live from our west coast bureau with more.

hi, trace. >> the decision basically means the town of west texas is basically on their own. the letter from fema reads in part we have determined that a major disaster declaration is not necessary. therefore, i must inform you that your request for a major disaster declaration is denied. the mayor of west says he's confused. liste listen. >> i need to know what their definition of a disaster is. if it's not, does it take 10, twenty firemen to die? does it take 500 homes instead of 400 homes to be destroyed? >> now, fema has provided $7 million in direct aid and has picked up 75% of the cleanup costs but believes the state and local governments can pick up the rest of the tab. the problem is the rest of the tab is hefty, between rebuilding infrastructure homes, businesses and schools, it could be upwards of $57 million. the annual budget of west is 2 million bucks. many residents are wondering

what happened to this promise? listen. >> we'll be there even after the cameras leave. and after the attention turns elsewhere. your country will remain ever ready to help you recover and rebuild and reclaim your community. >> he promised that he'd be behind us and he's so far behind us i can't see him. he needs to be beside us, not behind us. >> governor rick perry says he will appeal this decision. >> thanks for that update. the supreme court handed down a big ruling a couple hours ago on the issue of whether you can patent a human gene. sounds like science fiction but it's real. we'll explain when we come back. the less time i have to take care of me. that's why i like glucerna shakes. they have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes. glucerna products help me keep everything balanced.

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fox news alert now, less than 30 minutes from now, top u.s. intelligence officials will hold a closed door briefing for the full senate in an attempt to ease concerns for the growing controversial nsa spying programs. a brand new hour for "america live," i'm alisyn camerota in for megyn kelly today. among those lawmakers will be high level officials from the nsa, fbi and justice department. nsa director keith alexander claims the leaked phone and internet surveillance programs have been critical in preventing dozens of terror attacks. but a number of lawmakers say that's not good enough. they want more details.

chief intelligence correspondent, kathryn her ridge with the latest developments. >> in the last hour, developments what edward snowden might be a spy for china, the house leadership seemed to leave the door open. >> we will make sure there's a there or rogue scrub what his china connections are. there's a lot of questions there that need to be answered. >> it just seems unusual -- it seems unusual he would be in china and asking for protection of the chinese government, giving press conferences to chinese media. >> the white house is defending statements by general keith alexander, the nsa's director, that the controversial data mining program blocked terrorist attack attacks. >> these are two specific instances where these programs authorized by congress, overseen by congress and federal judges, overseen with internal checks and balances within the

executive branch, were found to be directly effective in thwarting terrorist attacks and again i cite general alexander in his note yesterday that these programs have, over time, contributed to the thwarting of dozen offers attacks. >> after alexander testified, the quote dozens of terrorist events were disrupted by the program, democratic senators widen and udall, early critics of the nsa challenged those claims saying quote we have not yet seen any evidence showing that the nsa's drag net collections of americans phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence. all of the plots that he, alexander, mentioned appear to have been identified using other collection methods. after a classified briefing on capitol hill, general alexander made a brief statement but he took no questions from reporter reporters. >> what we owe you, the american people, is now how good is that, with some statistics. i think when the american people

hear that, they're going to stop and say, wait, the information we're getting is incorrect. >> fox news asked the nsa if they could get more specific about the general's comments that dozens of terrorists events had been disrupted, specifically whether these were discreet plots or operatives and whether this dozens figure applied worldwide, not to events inside the united states. and they said they had nothing to add at this time, alison. >> it would sure be helpful to have a little bit more information about that. thank you. americans are rightly concerned about having all of their phone records collected and monitored all the time. we're here today to announce we will be challenging the constitutionality of the court order that collects all of americans' cell phone data all of the time. our founding fathers objected to general warrants that allowed soldiers to go from house to

house searching homes of american colonists. i think they would be equally horrified by a government that goes from phone to phone. >> that was senator rand paul moments ago on his decision to file a lawsuit against the nsa for what he calls a violation of the constitutional rights of millions of americans. the news comes hours after a fox poll shows the majority of americans agree with senator paul and 62% find phone records an unacceptable invasion of privacy. just 32% say they're okay with it. the director of the nsa is now admitting his agency has a credibility problem. >> clearly, when you look at it, the way it's stated in the press, that creates all sorts of credibility problems. >> joining us now from the washington free beacon. thanks for being here. many. >> thanks for having me. >> is this a catch-22 for the

nsa. they have to keep these programs secret in order to catch terrorists and thwart terror plots, yet it's that very secrecy that destroys the credibility with the american public. what are they to do? >> right. with respect to the credibility issue. if they were to reveal all the details that would be necessary to really give the public an idea how exactly this program works and intelligence it gathered and attacks it stopped, it would destroy any intelligence value the program has. when general alexander says we're trying to be transparent, i think he was being sincere there. i think they are trying to reveal as much information as they can, to put the public's fears at ease without comprom e compromising the intelligence they're gathering. >> it would help if they would tell us about those dozen terror plots supposedly thwarted as a result of this program. they mentioned the new york subway plot that was thwarted. that's a relief, it doesn't help

the boston bombing happened and ft. hood while these programs were in existence. why weren't those caught? >> true. it's hard to prove a negative. it's hard to demonstrate that in a way that doesn't compromise the intelligence value of these programs. i think there are channels that need to be followed in terms of briefing members of congress is a classified secret setting that wouldn't release information to the general public in a way that would compromise this intelligence but would do it in a way where the people's representatives can decide whether or not this is a worthwhile intelligence program and whether privacy concerns are being adequately addressed. >> is that the answer here? since there's no putting the genie back in the bottle in terms of technology. they now can trap all of our calls, so they're not going to suddenly blindfold themselves and not do it. is the answer more communication, more briefing of congress? >> right. yes. i think that the leaks that

happened did not obviously go through the channels that are in place for whistle-blowers and people who feel there's wrongdoing going on. i think that was very detrimental. so, yes, going forward, it's a good thing to know more about this to the extent we can, to the extent it doesn't actually compromise the program. i think that should happen in a very controlled classified setting, where we're not revealing too much information. >> lachlam, thanks for coming in. >> thanks for having me. coming up in the last couple of hours, a major court ruling that could have a huge impact on medical research in america. the supreme court unanimously deciding natural human genes cannot be patented. our shannon bream join us on why this is so important. so it doesn't sound like science fiction. >> you mentioned this was an unanimous opinion authored by

clarence thomas today. a naturally occurring dna segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible. a company had discovered the precise location and sequence of two genes which if they mutate dramatically increase the chance a woman may develop breast or ovarian cancer. plaintiffs argued their hold on that information was devastating to women in need of genetic testing or other medical researchers hoping to develop additional test and treatments. the court did find myriad can retain patents on synthetically created dna dubbed cdna. the lab technician unquestionably creates something new when cdna is made and not a product of nature and patentable. they said we believe the court appropriately upheld our claims on cdna, the synthetic invention and we remain committed to

helping people's lives and improve costs. there will be more affordable tests and widely available at a lower cost. good news for anybody out there who needs this. i talked to one of the plaintiffs in this case, a woman who is a breast cancer survivor and actually had a tough time affording the test. she said, when she heard about the ruling today, quote i'm just simply relieved. it will make a big difference with genetic testing. >> thank you. it could be a rough commute home for millions of people as a massive line of storms churns over the eastern half of the country. we will have the latest track for you. then a strange story. the husband of a pregnant actress accused of sending poisoned letters to the president and trying to frame her husband for it, is now opening up about this bizarre case for the very first time. google's reputation is on the line. why the internet giant is running into trouble trying to prove it was not helping the nsa

spy on millions of americans. >> it's my fear that we are on the verge of becoming a surveillance state. collecting billions of electronic records on law abi abiding americans every single day. [ male announcer ] running out of steam?

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we're tracking extreme weather at this hour as major thunderstorms make their way across the country. the east coast is bracing for high winds, large hail and heavy rain that could trigger flash flooding. according to reports this system spawned some 20 tornadoes from minnesota to the mid-atlantic. ohio just one area seeing heavy rain and dangerous lightning. the storm brings widespread power outages and we will keep you update dated throughout the hour. the nsa snooping scandal

sparking new concerns on online privacy and who's tracking you in cyber space. google is trying to rebuild its reputation following reports it helped the government spy on millions of americans. but the internet giant has a history of similar accusations. investigations have been questioning google's data mining practices for years. an internet security expert and the president of e forensic. thanks for being here. help us understand this. was google an unwitting partner to the nsa or willingly handing over our information to them. >> i don't know how you describe a willing partner. if they were complying with a court order to provide this information, they have to comply. if an fbi comes to an individual and says, we need your help, you don't think that person will help the united states government track down rrorism. >> just last week the head of google and mark zuckerberg said

they hadn't heard of the program before. >> it's possible they received an order to give that information but didn't understand where it was going. you have to understand it may not have been associated with p.r.i.s.m. but certainly they would go through this information. remember, nobody pays for google. how is google making money? they've been data mining -- i know they don't call it th that -- they've been collecting information on everybody, your surfing habits and reselling that information to marketers. there's a sinister side of that that can be used -- that information can be used against innocent individuals. i've been warning people since myspace. you're going to run for office one day. what you're saying right now at the age of 12, 13 and going to come back when you run for congress. stop putting stupid stuff online. >> the sinister side you're talking about is what? who's seeing -- who's going after us for the contents all floating around out there. >> let's not forget what's going on with the irs. could you imagine if this type

of information, what you were doing when you were younger, who your associations were, they would know right away. if the irs was involved in that targeting, as -- i know it seems like that way but i always as a former state law enforcement officer want to see the end of the investigation when all the facts come in. pending that, if they were involved in that, could you imagine what the federal government could do with this much information on associations and who people are communicating with? >> it seems so overwhelming, john, now, we all live out here in the real world. we can't lock ourselves away and be her mitts. what's the answer if we don't like our personal business being exposed. >> this is a great opportunity for investors to step in and create a niche market for non-searching or tracking. maybe we will have a successful company in light of what's going on with the search engines. the only reason the federal government is coming to them because they amassed all this information. if you get a search engine out

there that does not track you and does not save your information and just makes their money from advertising with pop-ups and all these other links they provide, i think millions at a time would jump to a search engine like that and say good-bye to google. i know how to get google to stop what they're doing, don't use google. we agree to use google. we're the ones going to google and then complain about what they're doing. they're providing you what appears to be a free service. nothing is free in life. >> there is no non-tracking search engine right now in existence? >> right now, because they take information for marketing purposes and other purposes, that become as treasure trove of information of what they're looking a the by the federal government. the federal government cannot come to a company who's not providing the tracking that information and storing that information and say start doing it. they can't do that, okay, unless they get a court order. i don't know any judge that will allow them to do that. create a search engine that doesn't create this information and they won't be a target of the nsa.

>> all you entrepreneurs out there, you heard it, get started. thanks so much. m great to talk to you. we have a tragic twist to the deadly building collapse in philadelphia. what has happened to the man who inspected the building right before the fatal accident. in just the last 12 hours, the number of homes destroyed in the colorado wildfires has tripled as the state gets ready to put out new evacuation orders, we will go live to the fire lines next. as we get a series of new fox polls that suggest a growing crisis of confidence exists in our government. we will explore all of that nex next. >> in your extensive record and history and investigative work, don't you typically talk to the victims? it's a criminal investigation. don't you talk to the victims pretty soon? did the fbi contact any of these same victim, were they contacted by the fbi prior to the investigation, when these same groups were applying to tax-exempt status, did the fbi pay some of these individual as

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a tragic new twist in the philadelphia building collapse. officials say the man who inspected the downtown building weeks before it gave way was found dead in his truck last night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. he inspected the building may 15th and it came down when demolished. officials say the inspector did nothing wrong. a heavy equipment operator with a long rap sheet is facing charges. officials say he was high on marijuana while working on the demolition. fox news alert for you now on those massive wildfires burning in colorado. the sheriff now saying the big

blaze near colorado springs has destroyed more than 360 homes. we are getting brand new video from the air force academy where 16 academy firefighters are helping to battle the flames. you can see their point of view there as they race along bringing the hose. it has already forced thousands of people out of their homes and no end in sight at this hour. live from monument, colorado, what is the latest? >> reporter: in terms of homes destroyed this is already the most destructive fire in history. the sheriff, when he gave that 360 number he added there are 79 homes they can't get to at this point to assess. chances are the numbers are going to go up. what's more, it's at zero percent containment. right now, the sheriff says the wind is the one determining exactly how they are strategizing what to do in terms of attacking the blaze. it's been incredibly difficult

and very dangerous. as the afternoon goes on it gets hotter and drier and the wind is picking up at 40 to 50 miles today and the winds are getting stronger and they have yet to find a place they can draw a line on the fire. they say it's moving in a couple different directions, which makes it harder because the wind is pushing it in a couple of different directions. you mentioned the air force academy adding its resources and a dc-10 that has tens of thousands of gallons of slurry to get up and drop and others doing the same. because of the wind it makes it very hard for them. they are also continuing to evacuate more and more people. 38,000 people, alisyn, at this point, have been evacuated near the colorado springs area. they expect that number to go up, as the weather right now,is not promising anything better to help them in these fire-fighting efforts. >> what a herbiculean effort it

will take. thank you. one week after top senators challenged the veterans administration, still no word on why an agency drowning in a backlog of claims is paying almost 200 staffers to do work for its union. we'll talk with the head of a concerned vets group. just day after fox polls suggests a growing crisis of confidence of the government and its leaders, the fbi director is grilled about what one lawmaker called the most important investigation in america. we'll show you why this is making news next. >> you've had a month now to investigate. this has been the biggest story in the country and you can't even tell me who the lead investigator is? you can't tell me that actions the inspector general took, which are not typically how investigations are done, you can't tell me if this is appropriate or not. this is not speculation, this is what happened.

fox news alert now to louisiana, as we await remarks from governor bobby jindal at a deadly explosion at a chemical plant this morning. state police confirming a short time ago at least one person was killed in the blast and it injured more than 30 others. we will bring you the latest news from this location as soon as we have it. we have more breaking news for you, out of washington, where we saw an angry exchange just a short while ago on the investigation into the irs targeting of conservative groups. this comes less than 12 hours

after new fox news polls show a vast majority of americans want congress to continue digging into the three main controversies. those are the irs, targeting of conservative groups, the department of justice monitoring of reporters and of benghazi. when asked directly, do you trust the government, most of those asked did not have much confidence. 41%. with 22% saying they do not trust the federal government at all. watch now what happened when fbi director, robert muller, was questioned today about the irs investigation. just an hour ago. >> based on everything i've seen, regarding mr. cummings, the case is solved, regarding the irs case. >> the irs case? it's currently under investigation and just started. >> what can you tell us about this? have you found the now infamous two rogue agents, have you discovered who those people are?

>> needless to say because it's under investigation, i can't give out information. >> can you tell me basics? can you tell me how many agents and investigators you assigned to the case. >> may be able to do that. i have to get back to you. >> can you tell me who the lead investigator is? >> off the top of my head, no. >> the most important issue in the country, you don't know who the head investigator is in the case? >> no. >> can you get that information? we'd like to know and how many people you assigned to that investigation. >> i had a briefing when we first initiated it but i have not had a briefing on where we are. >> you don't know who is leading the case? >> i do not know. >> have you talked to any of the victims? have you talked to any of the group targeted by their government any of the tea party folks since may 14th, 2008? >> i don't know the status. >> would you expect that's been done? >> there -- you -- there -- you -- i -- certainly at some point in time in the

course of the investigation it will be done but generally at the outset you get the documents. >> don't you -- >> i do not know specifically. >> in your history in investigative work, don't you talk to the victim, a criminal investigation, don't you talk to the victims pretty soon? >> it will happen. >> did the fbi contact any of these same victims, were they contacted by the fbi prior to the investigation when these same groups were applying for tax-exempt status, did the fbi pay them a visit. >> i do not know? >> what. >> i do not know. >> you don't know. >> some said they were visited by the fbi. kathryn said she was visited by the fbi, head of true the vote. >> i do not know. >> don't know. >> if the fbi did contact people involved in the irs scandal, victims' group, prior to the investigation when they were applying for tax-exempt status, why was that the case?

why were you looking into it? was there possible coordination with the irs? >> if you're asking me details about the investigation. >> i'm not asking you details. i'm saying why were people targeted before the investigation started? why were they contacted by the fbi, people now tea party groups targeted by the irs? >> you're asking questions about details of the investigation. >> that is not a detail about the investigation. that took place prior to the investigation starting. >> may i please finish? you're asking detailed questions about the investigation. i'd be happy to get back to you and answer those questions i can, understanding -- >> i'm asking basic questions about the investigation like who's heading it up. you can't tell me that. >> so does all this lead to a crisis of confidence in our government? let's debate that. a former press aide to gop vice-presidential nominee jack kemp and president of talk radio news service. mark hannah is a former a both john kerry and barack obama presidential campaigns and

political analyst and dan henne ger is editor of the "wall street journal." thanks for joining me. >> thank you. >> daniel, i want to start with you because you published a piece in the "wall street journal" you titled "the sum of all fears." can you explain what you believe the cumulative effect of all these scandals has on all americans? >> it's not just the cumulative effect, alisyn, it's much more going on. i quoted a pugh poll released only in january that said 53% of americans now regard the federal government as a threat to their rights and their freedom. this isn't saying we think government is too big, a threat to their rights and freedom, more than half the people in this united states? there's obviously a problem of some sort here. we had the president just last week, after the surveillance leak broke, saying that, look, we have a lot of oversight, we have the executive branch,

judicious judiciary, legislative branch, we have a lot of oversight. if these people can't be trusted we have some problems here. >> we have some problems here because the irs scandal makes it clear the government was leaning on people merely organizing to commit politics. i thought the directors answers were pretty astounding and now we have the director of the fbi saying he doesn't know what's going on. a week or soing a we have the former head of the irs saying he had no idea what's going on in cincinnati. why wouldn't people be distrustful of a government that talks like that. >> mark, i want to bring you in because you're a democrat and had your pulse on various campaigns including barack obama's. do you think democrats are okay with the direction the country is going in? >> i think democrats and republicans both have trouble with the federal government. i think in his editorial and reporting is important. important to distinguish when he

talks about losing faith in the federal government. the federal government is comprised both of barack obama and his administration and congress. so what you see here is the president's approval rating is holding steady around 50% while congressional righteousness have an approval rating somewhere down 1 in 4 americans approve of the job they're doing. i happen to think that the oversight committee has a very important task ahead of it to investigation any appearance of impropriety, especially with the irs situation. but the problem that democrats like me have, and the reason we lose faith in the federal government, when we see daryl issa, chairman of the oversight committee making these broad accusation, hurling accusations against the administration and weeks later not being able to come forward with any evidence that links what happened in the irs to anybody in the administration itself, even a conservative republican that worked in the irs cincinnati office told representative cummings, the person on the congressional representative was quoting, told him there was no

link. a conservative republican said there was no link with the irs or anybody in the obama administration. >> even though the investigation is ongoing, they are still trying to figure out who gave the order. bart of the crisis in confidence is there doesn't seem to be accountability. people aren't held responsible. nobody has been fired with the irs. i want to bring in tony. what do you make of whether or not there is a real crisis of confidence in this, or is it sometimes too much for all of us to keep all of this in our heads and so americans just sort of have to go back to their household, their own household economy and their own to-do list? >> i'm sure americans would rather focus on other things. again, there is a cumulative effect here. it's this weight of all this dysfunction happening at once. i think it's very astound iing d listed very appropriate ly by dn henne ger, when you have 53% of

americans saying they have little or no confidence or trust in their government, that goes the ability of obama administration officials. you have eric holder, people saying maybe he didn't per jer himself but certainly misled the congressional committee. >> but doesn't it -- >> hold on, mark. i never once interrupted you. this mice moment quick. >> wait a minute. i'll let mark ask. >> my thought is very simple, you have the head of central intelligence who went up, clapper, to a congressional committee, a democratic senator wyden actually asked him the question to which he said, no, no program like we just learned about nsa is doing with the phone records existed. you have the administration caught in these bald faced lies. of course, people are going to ultimately look at the whole situation and say, we can't trust what is going on in washington. because they're all viewing these things at the same time, it does create a crisis of confidence and it's happening on the president's watch. mark was absolutely wrong. the average of this president's

approval right now is below 46%. some polls show him at 44%. he is taking the hit, not just the institutions of government. >> mark, what point did you want to make? >> the point i wanted to make, we have the oversight committee. there's no oversight of the oversight committee. when some body of congress has an important task like checking -- keeping an eye on the federal government on the executive branch and then loses confidence because it's seen by many americans as politically motivated, that goes to the heart of confidence in the government. i do agree with something tony said, both democrats and republicans are losing faith. some of that has to do with the fact we just don't know what happened in this nsa leak case. some of that will come out in the weeks and months ahead and ultimately help us restore faith in this government. >> dan, i want to tell you, we found a pugh research center poll. it showed something fascinating. they looked back at 1958. they went all the way back from today to 1958 about the

confidence in government. in 1960 or mid-60, 1965, it showed 73% of americans had confidence in their government. today, that exact same number, 73% have distrust in their government. it went from trust to distrust. is there any way to turn this around or have we all just become permanently jaded? >> well, those were simpler times, to be sure, alisyn. it's going to be difficult to turn it around. i think the person with the biggest problem is probably barack obama. i don't so much mean the scandal as his agenda. barack obama has been giving speeches for four years about how he wanted the government to do a lot of things to make our lives better, in effect, making government bigger. i think the problem he's running into, alisyn, suggested by this nsa surveillance scandal, there's a lot of angst sity in the country not only about the size of government, the regulatory state but about things like digital surveillance, about our

smartphones and pcs can be monitored by marketers who will then push advertising at us. i think the american public is rightly stepping back and saying we have to draw some lines here. we want to know what we're getting into. when president obama keeps saying, trust me, the government can get bigger, it will only do good things, they're saying we have some real doubts about that. >> clearly, something needs to change for the american public to feel better about the direction. dan henneger, mark, tony, thanks so much for debating it. one week after top senators challenged the veterans administration, there is still no word why the agency is paying almost 200 staffers just to do work for its union. we'll speak to the ceo of concerned veterans for america next. plus a miracle for the family of that 10-year-old girl who finally grot the lung transplant she desperately needed. we'll tell you how sarah is doing today. >> so thankful for the donor. i know their family had a huge

loss. this great day for me is a really tragic day for them. it was not lost on me. that for her to live, somebody else gave her this amazing gift. we're just so thankful. ... ...lg ... ... ...

the family of that 10-year-old girl overjoyed today after she gets a life saving lung transplant. sarah murnaghan had cystic fibrosis.

her family fought to make her eligible for an adult lung transplant. and yesterday they got the news there was a lung for sarah. her aunt says the surgery went well. >> they were able to re-size the adult lungs without any issue. it was a perfect fit into sarah. the surgery's done and she's heading to recovery. we expect her to be, you know, doing some things within the next couple days and taking her first breath so we can't wait for that. >> sarah's health was rapidly deteriorating when a judge intervened in her case last week, giving her a chance at the much larger list of organs from adult donors. new calls for answers from some top senators demanding to know why the department of veterans affairs is paying employees to work for its unions. more than 250 workers being paid full time not to clear a backlog of claims from our veterans but to do work for the va unions on the taxpayer's dime. it's been a week since those

senators challenged the secretary of veterans affairs for an explanation and still they have not gotten an answer. ceo of concerned veterans for america joins me now. pete, can you explain this? why is this incredible list of people who are supposed to be helping to clear the backlogged claims for veterans doing union work? >> well, it's not a new practice. that has been around since 1978 as part of the civil service reform act. government employees union workers have been doing this a long time. the reason we're shining this light and senators are rightly shining this light at v.a., like you talked about in the previous segment, there's a lack of trust in government, the irs scandal and sequestration in government to deliver. the v.a. has been failing in delivering services to veterans and backlog of claims is 850 thousand increased by 2,000 percent under this administration. veterans are waiting for

benefits they earned on the battlefield. while that's happening you have folks that could be spending time doing jobs for the v.a. doing union work. this isn't about bashing unions, i understand why unions exist. why would we be protecting that and serving unions opposed to veterans. secretary shen sinsecki should looking at clearing a backlog almost a million long rather than workers that should be serving veterans. >> let me give our listeners and viewers a list of the type of employees now doing union work instead of serving our veterans. nurses, pharmacist, psychcologists, addiction specialists, social workers, health technicians, medical suppo support, physicians, therapists, dental lab technicians, police officers and security guards. since that number, 850,000 you just quoted is so disgraceful, couldn't these people's time be

spent actually helping veterans? >> absolutely especially considering the fact the 85 nurses, the v.a. is hiring more nurses because many of the nurses they have are on official time doing union work. this isn't universally -- we got feedback we're bashing union, this is about the department of veterans affairs failing our veterans too long that needs to be held accountable with the fact they're jacketing work others to serve the interest of uni unions vis-a-vis interest of veterans and should be throwing everything but the kitchen sink at fixing this backlog and hasn't been accountability from the top down. when a story like this comes down, it's not new news but thank goodness the senators are paying attention. our organization sent a letter to the white house asking them to answer simple questions about the backlog among with the congress men and senators. we have gotten no answer. not a lot of answers coming out of the white house or department

of veterans affairs. it's a shaleful backlog and they don't have a plan to fix it in a timely manner. >> pete, thank you so much for explaining all this. hopefully we will get an answer and those veterans will get the help they need. thank you. >> thanks, alisyn, we will keep at it. at it. we will go)mpvtzv live to goverr gf/ñal when he haszme al2ñ pres conference and bring yaw all of the latest in terms of deaths and jindal and the deaths and injuries there.

fox news alert now, to louisiana, where governor bobby jindal is making remarks on a deadly explosion at a chemical plant this morning. let's listen. >> the plant site of these evacuees, eight were taken by helicopter to hospital. as ofxd now 73 people in total,

including those eight, have been taken to local hospitals. i want to emphasize these numbers will fluctuate. these numbers will change. but the latest numbers are that 73 individuals from the plant site have been taken to a variety of local hospitals. as of now, we believe that every worker has been accounted for. there are ten workers still in a safe room in the plant. this is part of the emergency protocol to help with the shutting town of the plant. so there are ten people in a safe room, helping to maintainç the operations you can see. unfortunately the is one confirmed fatility. there is one confirmed fatility of a worker at the plant, at this time the worker's family is being notified, but as we are speaking to you, first responders, plant manager, is in the process of notifying that worker's family. the parish lifted the shelter in place order inç the two-mile radius around the plant. there are four additional plants

in the area that do have -- >> trace gallagher is live in our west coast news room with more. what more do we know? >> the residents said -- you can see this from miles awayç but u can hear it from miles away. the pictures from earlier were phenomenal. this is an onhands on deck scenario. the hospitals on alert. you heard the governor talking. you have firefighters and first responsiblers. right now they're pretty much letting the chemical burn off. not to say the chemical is going in the air because theç authorities believe what is happening is the chemical is actually burning off as it comes out of the at the same time they have all the rest of these emergency valves and shut down mode so there's no chance of any other explosions here. they do not know the cause of this right now. but they are still investigating. a long way to go. >> the injuries are staggering, based on what the for told us, 3

people have been taken to the hospital -- 73 people can be taken to the hospital and one person killed. so those numbers will fluctuate. thank you for the update. we'll bring you more as soon as we have and it we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] this is kevin.

to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap.

>> that does it for me. thank you for watching. "studio b" with shepard smith starts now. >> gorgeous in green. >> you, too.

the head of the fbi making a case for the government's phone tracking by claiming it could have prevented 9/11. even as some lawmakers warn we're fast approaching a surveillance state. still tracking the tedly explosion at the chemical plant in louisiana at which you just heard so much. at least one person killed. dozens and dozens hurt. we'll speak live with the state police for an update. the surgery was very, very successful. that from family members who are updating us on 10-year-old sarah, a day after doctors gave her new lungs in her battle against cystic fibrosis, all ahead, unless breaking news changes everything. on "studio b." >> butç first on fox, at 3:00 n new york city, the government's program to track our phone call data could have prevented the attacks of september 11th had it been in place. that's the word today from the head of the fbi as he strongly defended the phone tracking. fbi