"hannity" coming up, megyn back at 11:00 and probably will be here until "fox and friends." i'm bill o'reilly, remember, the spin stops here. we're definitely looking out for you. breaking tonight, huge developments in two major events unfolding right now around the world. in the middle east new video coming in as israel, america's closest ally and one of the most dangerous parts of the world, launches a full-scale military operation against islamic terrorists in the gaza strip. and in eastern europe smoldering wreckage of a boeing 777 with possibly 23 americans and more than 200 others potentially on board. they were all murdered according to the reports. welcome to "the kelly file" everyone. i'm megyn kelly on a dark eching. we start with a question of who may have possibly killed those americans and what we are going to do about it. we have had a lot of news

breaking in just the last hour. we're going to get to all of it. here's what we now know about this passenger jet shot down over ukraine. around 1:00 p.m. local time malaysian airlines flight 17 departed amsterdam en route to kuala lumpur, malaysia. but at over 30,000 feet while flying over eastern ukraine the plane dropped off of radar and crashed. keep your eyes on the horizon of the amateur video over toward the left. the explosion right there, is reportedly the impact of the plane. a massive plume of black smoke rises from the crash site. eyewitnesses say the debris field stretches for nearly ten miles. the scene there was horrific. human bodies littering the burning wreckage. tonight senior intel sources have now confirmed that a missile took down this plane. and that this weapon may have launched is called a buk, a surface-to-air missile launch although that's still under investigation specifically what it was. the buk was developed in the

1970s soviet union. what we don't know is who fired it though there are many suspicions. back at home president obama was on the road delivering a speech in delaware calling for more spending on transportation. and in the middle of that he paused to say this. >> the world is watching reports of a downed passenger jet near the russia/ukraine border. and it looks like it may be a terrible tragedy. right now we're working to determine whether there were american citizens on board. >> the president spent the next half hour talking about the need for more infrastructure projects. and then hopped onto air force one for a quick trip to new york city. he arrived just hours ago to attend two campaign fund raising events that are closed to the media. we are now waiting for his departure and may still get some additional comments tonight although none are scheduled. even before he arrived some media outlets were asking why he is out fund raising when up to

two dozen americans and who knows how many more, we just don't have the numbers, but the reports were could be 23 americans on the manifest of this plane who were killed in a terror attack less than 12 hours ago. chief white house correspondent ed henry is live for us tonight at the white house. ed. >> good evening, megyn. the president clearly was not concerned enough about the image of the fund raising to cancel them, but they are clearly worried potentially about the politics, the optics of this, enough so that white house aides were very careful to tell us that as soon as the president landed in new york city a couple hours ago before fund raising that he convened two secure phone calls with secretary of state john kerry and then broader national security team including cia director to get updates both on the gaza situation as well as the ukrainian-russia situation. he did not visit the border in texas because he was not interested in photo ops. today in delaware he kept us his photo ops. had a cheeseburger with a single

mom. think back to how this week started. a major front page piece in "the wall street journal" cataloging all these national security crises around the world raised the question about whether u.s. power around the globe was in decline. i pressed josh earnest about that, the white house press secretary, and he down played it. >> how does the white house react to the notion that the president is a bystander to all these crises? >> i think there have been a number of situations in which you've seen this administration intervene in a meaningful way that has substantially furthered american interests and substantially improved the, you know, the tranquility of the global community. >> perhaps not so much tranquility tonight, which is why on air force one a couple hours ago the president, see that photo, called the new ukrainian president. one of the things he stressed is the president said he wants to make sure the evidence from the wreckage stays in ukraine. problem is some of the separatists are already saying they took the black box or boxes

to russia. so this evidence may have already been tamplerred with, megyn. >> ed henry, thank you. less than three hours ago the state department announced that secretary kerry has canceled his speaking event to a jewish group tonight so he can engage in "internal meetings and discussions with his counterparts around the world." so far no changes announced for the president's schedule. "the washington post" columnist and american enterprise institute and former presidential speech writer who was in the bush white house for a number of years. mark, good to see you tonight. >> good to be with you, megyn. >> obviously we're focused on what's happening overseas, but again with the fundraisers. as we may have 23 -- early reports are 23 americans were on the manifest. we're waiting for actual confirmations. but at a minimum we have 300 people dead from what appears to be an act of terror. >> absolutely. i mean, you have almost 298 people, possibly americans, killed. and not in a plane crash not in

a plane crash but a surface-to-air missile. instead of heading to the situation room, the president is heading to a fundraiser. could he have not sent joe biden? could he have not sent the first lady? do you think anybody would have returned their checks because the president went back to the white house to manage two international crises happening at the same time? >> what is he doing? why is he doing that? >> i honestly don't know. ed pointed out just last week he was in texas and went to a fundraiser instead of the border. he has a pattern of doing this. the day after the benghazi attack he was in las vegas for a fundraiser. the day after putin initially invaded ukraine and went to crimea, he went to happy hour. when iraq was falling and mo sul fell to isis, he went to laguna

beach and then to palm springs. i don't understand what this president is thinking. >> is it that he doesn't want to alarm people? he doesn't want to say the world is ending so he wants to keep his tone measured and he wants his day not to look disrupted so we all do the same? >> well, you know, it's kind of hard when you're sitting there and you have virtually a split screen where you're making jokes about transportation funding and joking about jack's signature as he did in his speech today and on the pictures on the screen are a smoke plume coming out of the ground in ukraine where there could be dead americans, that's the kind of thing that should disrupt the president's day. you're allowed to have your day disrupted. no one's going to think you're not in command because you decided to go back to the situation room to monitor eventings rather than go to fundraiser. >> you pointed out he's done these repeatedly when we've had serious situations including confirmed american lives lost, ie benghazi. >> yeah. >> the other thing people are looking at from our commander in

chief on a night like this, marc, when we're concerned. i mean, we're concerned. the world is in a lot of trouble right now. and it is not tranquil, mr. earnest, is some comfort. he's also considered the comforter in chief. you know that as a former presidential speech writer. so we heard those words today. and a lot of people said really. and then you move onto transportation. and it reminds one of the remarks he made after the ft. hood massacre where, well, we have it cued up. watch it. >> let me first of all just thank ken and the entire department of the interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference. my understanding is is that you had an extremely productive conference. every single member of my team understands that this is a top priority for us, but as some of you might have heard there has been a tragic shooting at the ft. hood army base in texas.

>> he was excoriated for that. and now it seems he's done it again. >> well, yeah. if you look at the speech he gave today, he was joking around about joe biden. he went seamlessly out of those comments about he said, you know, we may have had a tragedy here, to making jokes about joe biden's looks, making jokes about jack's signature on the dollar bill and then political attacks against republicans, joked about being sued by speaker boehner. >> let me ask you this because you are on the inner circle of the white house. what was it like under president bush? was there an understanding that the american people are looking to their leader to set the tone? again, maybe this is the tone he wants to set. business as usual, nothing to see here. this is a little check mark we need to address, but go forward. what was it like in that white house? >> it wasn't anything like this. the president of the united states if there was a terrorist attack he would be in charge of it. i mean, if you look at 9/11 and the story of what happened on the day of 9/11, everybody was

trying to keep the president out. he wanted -- desperately wanted to get back to the white house. >> he got writ for continuing to read the children's story, but something democrats ripped him for. you would think people would learn from that. >> absolutely. and so democrats were ripping president bush for spending three more minutes with the children before jumping out of the room. but president obama can go to a fundraiser after benghazi, after this and it's no problem. but if you raid the accounts of that day, president bush desperately wanted -- he was insistent over the objections of the security detail, i'm going to be back in the white house tonight. i want people to see their commander in chief in the white house leading their country unafraid. i think americans are not see thag from this president. we need the commander in chief, whether republican or democrat, when something like this happens, particularly if americans might be killed, you want the commander in chief in charge. back at the white house doing his job and not raising money for the democratic party. >> you have got democratic senator carl levin saying this could be considered an act of

war, an act of war. you can see it there. whoever did it should pay a full price. if it's by a country either directly or indirectly. and it could be considered an act of war. and if it's an act of war with dead americans, then there's a real problem for not just those who were on board the aircraft and their families tonight, but the people of the united states. marc, thank you. >> thanks, megyn. also breaking tonight, dramatic new video coming in as israel launches a large-scale military operation in gaza. one aimed at pushing back the terror group hamas. watch. [ gunfire ] that came just a short time ago. and while marc thiessen was speaking we heard new cannon fire live right near where our own john huddy is reporting from gaza city tonight. john, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, megyn, yeah, we just heard a series of rounds

of cannon fire offshore here. i'm just kind of keeping an eye out because we saw the tracer from some of those rounds. and then we heard some very loud cannon fire from further offshore, probably some large artillery. that's been the course -- that's been the case all night here as operation protective edge is now in the eleventh day. now, as we know, ground forces are on -- are here in gaza. the israeli military from day one, megyn, has been talking about the possibility of a ground offensive, in particular going after hamas' infrastructure here in gaza. in particular the tunnels, the underground network of tunnels for the storage and transport of all these rockets that have been fired at israel over the course of the last 11 days. so there's been the anticipation of when or if ground offensive will happen. and now that is happening. we also heard earlier today along with the heavy artillery

fire, cannon fire from offshore, the air strikes, the heavy artillery fire from the east coming in from the israel/gaza border. we heard small arms fire, probably about a mile and a half, two miles north of us. by the way, we're looking north here. that is a signal that troops are on the ground here in gaza, in northern gaza, and probably pushing south towards gaza city, our location here. i just want to keep an eye out because i just heard what sounded like small arm fire. small arm fire. yeah. in the background there. just bear with me because i just want -- so there's been a fire fight pretty much all night. i don't know if you can see it. there's a building in the foreground here. and then you may not be able to, but probably about a mile in front of us to the north that's where we've been hearing this small arm fire. and the fire fight that's been going on most likely between presumably israeli forces, ground troops, and hamas

militants. we're not sure what they're targeting in particular. we've seen a lot of rocket launches from this area in and around our location here throughout the past six days that we've been here, megyn. and we've also heard and seen a lot of air strikes so close to this building it jolts every time something hits. and tonight the fighting, the strikes, the heavy artillery has been so close, i mean, you can still smell it in the air. and now we've also seen and heard from the air -- i don't know if you can hear this, but the drones, the constant hum of the drones overhead. i don't know if you can hear that. but also helicopter gun ships. apache helicopters that have been firing off hell fire missiles. it has been a very violent night tonight here on the ground in gaza city. now we're in the early morning hours, it's about 4:15 by my watch. so this is going to continue through the night into the morning as now the ground offensive has started here,

megyn, back to you. >> john huddy, back to you as the news warrants. thank you. we have more breaking news into the investigation into this deadly plane crash in eastern europe that may have killed americans and the investigation into that missile that took this thing down. our chief intelligence correspondent kathrine her ij is live in washington tonight. >> megyn, u.s. officials on the law enforcement and intelligence side say preliminary determination is surface-to-air missile but emphasized the analysis is ongoing tonight. this is a highly fluid situation as fox news confirms the technical analysis includes a sensory capability available to only a handful of nations, among them the u.s., china and russia. the satellites are part of the dsp program and have two capabilities, images and sensors, the latter detecting heat blasts. in this case the data can be matched to the time of day, the debris fell from the sky. and it can show a surge or spike in activity indicating a missile launch and its impact. this reported ten-mile debris field is described by the head

of the senate intelligence committee tonight after a classified briefing as consistent with the flight sudden disintegration at high altitude. >> it looks, it appears to somebody that just looks at this that it was an in-air explosion because the debris field is so widely spread. >> fox news is also told tonight the flight manifest will be run against known terrorist databases to determine whether any passengers on the list had suspicious links and if there were any individuals on board who would make the flight an attractive target. at this hour we're told the state department doesn't have the manifest yet. and earlier today as you've reported there was no confirmation of americans on board. >> we don't have any additional details at this point on american citizens. we're looking to of course obtain that information. >> fox news also learning that deliberations are taking place at this hour at the executive level about what u.s. assets can be made available to the ukrainians if they make that

request. the fbi and the ntsb are in that mix, but again, the u.s. would need a specific request for help to reply, megyn. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. and now with more, congressman peter king, former chairman and current member of the house homeland security committee. congressman, good to see you tonight. >> megyn, good to see you. >> do you believe that they still do not have the manifest of this flight? >> no, i would believe we have to have that. >> meaning we the americans. >> i'm not certain, but we do and probably the reason they're not acknowledging americans they're going to wait until next of kin is notified. that's usually the way it's done. >> but not even to confirm the number of americans or that there were americans on board? >> i don't know why they wouldn't. to me when you create a mystery about this it creates conspiracy theories. this is bad enough without creating extra confusion. >> do you have knowledge of this? >> no, i don't, no. >> is this something that you will be briefed on? >> yes, i will be, yes. >> right now what we're hearing is most people believe this is, you know, this faction of

ukraine who is pro-russian, basically. they call them separatists, but they're pro-russian. and the big question is whether russia actually had its hands in it or not. do you believe that matters? >> no. it matters certainly if russia was directly involved, it matters. but even the fact they supplied the weaponry, they have to take responsibility. and i think it's important for the president to show leadership here. if any russian involvement at all and certainly appears if there were, i think we should deny russian planes landing rights in the u.s. >> wow. >> and get european allies the same. why should ar fat be allowed until russia admits what happened, until they make full compensation and make sure it doesn't happen again. >> if russia had its hands on this, even indirectly, do you believe it was an act of war? >> i would say -- well, if it's indirect, maybe not an act of war, but certainly an act of criminal negligence. and russia would have to bear responsibility. >> it's starting to sound like it may have been -- may have been, an accident. they were shooting down cargo

planes and one of them had 50 people on it. so it's not like no human lives were lost. but they had shot down a cargo plane i think on monday and then another one yesterday. one on saturday with 49 people killed. one on wednesday they took credit for. and this morning they took credit for shooting down another cargo plane. and then when it was revealed this is a passenger plane, they took down their tweet taking credit for taking down a cargo plane. >> i would put it in the category of criminal negligence. but as a major world power, russia cannot be guilty of criminal negligence. they have to pay a price. this isn't some third world banana republic we're talking about. we're talking about russia and putin. he has to be held accountable. and i think we should start with embargoes, do whatever we can do economically and get western allies to show guts and go along with us and be energy independent. >> we don't want to do it because it's going to hurt us financially, correct? >> in the long run we have to do it. it's as simple as that. there's always going to be some pain. no pain, no gain. so i believe, again, the

president has to show leadership. >> what should he be doing? if the early reports turn out to be true and there were 20-plus americans on board this plane that were just murdered by guys who received some very dangerous equipment from putin, what should our president do? >> first of all he shouldn't be at fundraiser tonight. that's disgraceful for the president of the united states. >> what is he thinking? why is he doing that? >> something missing there. there's something missing between whether it's benghazi, whether it's now. just passes over this. in a speech today in delaware. >> it cannot be that he doesn't care. what could it be? >> something almost like an emotional barrier he has. again, benghazi out to las vegas to raise money after the americans killed in benghazi. it's a failure of leadership. again, any president can make a mistake, but this is a pattern. it's a long-established pattern in times of crisis he seems to zone out. >> last question, do you think we're going to know who did this one way or the other even if they're running away with the

evidence? >> show us exactly where the missile came from and the forensics will show the material and what country it originated in. >> i hope you're right. congressman pete king, good to see you tonight. >> thank you. >> good to see you sir. what is the military doing here? as we look at a situation where russia may be responsible for the murder of american citizens? jen jack keen joins us live just ahead. and in 1983 a jet with 60 americans also was shot down by the russians. just ahead we'll look at how president reagan handled that one. >> it was an act of barbarism. born of a society which wantonally disregards human life. be on at&t's network for $175 dollars a month? yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close.

introducing at&t mobile share value plans... ...with our best-ever pricing for business. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] if you can't stand the heat, get off the test track. get the mercedes-benz you've been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. but hurry, offers end july 31st. share your summer moments in your mercedes-benz with us.

chances are we're already there. be or what you want to do, 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world. like super 8, where every destination is super. save up to 15 percent and earn bonus points when you book at wyndhamrewards.com

back now to the breaking news from the middle east as we track two big stories tonight. it is 4:00 in the morning in

israel, and we are hearing artillery shells constantly landing in gaza tonight. [ gunfire ] those are the sounds of war. where is this going? and what does it mean for the united states? brooke goldstein human rights attorney. what does that mean for us? >> i think it means we have to pay attention very, very closely because there are several reasons why americans should care very deeply about this current conflict. and number one because of 9/11. because hamas and al qaeda are the same type of islamist terrorist groups that are theologically motivated with the goal of destroying the west. and hamas is attacking israel not because it's engaged in some sort of civil rights battle for the palestinian people for palestinian sovereignty. we know hamas does not care about the palestinian people

because they are using them as human shields. hamas is attacking israel israel as the outpost of the west in the middle east. and it knows if we abandon israel, if we allow israel to be destroyed, then we are next. and it can destroy us. and the only reason why hamas has not been able to kill more americans abroad, it has killed americans in israel, is because the israeli counterterror naval and air blockade and ground blockade of hamas. >> when you describe them, of course one wonders how could this ever be resolved. egypt is trying to broker this truce and find a peace between the palestinians and israelis and palestinians saying it's not all about hamas, we're sort of different. how can we ever -- you watch the artillery shell land and continue tonight and there's no way out. hamas isn't going to say, okay, israel, you get to exist. >> well, first and foremost we have to report on the conflict in a responsible way.

what we're seeing right now is the media is misrepresenting what's going on on the ground. it is accusing israel of engaging in war crimes even though israel -- >> they are highlighting the civilian casualties all on the palestinian side because they don't have the iron dome defense. >> because hamas is using women and children as human shields. and what the media is doing is playing into the dead baby strategy, the so-called dead baby strategy, by reporting on these tragedies without accurately reporting how hamas is using civilians as human shields. and therefore we are encouraging hamas to do that. and that's on our own moral conscience. >> it becomes a propaganda tool for them to keep things going. they want this going further into the future. >> this is a p.r. war for hamas. hamas did not attack israel because it thinks it's going to win. hamas knows it's going to lose. hamas' goal is to increase civilian casualties. >> so do they win then as we watch israel winning and upping its game militarily and

invading -- not invading or however you want to put it into gaza tonight to try to shut down the tunnels they use to get into israel and they want to murder civilians there, are they winning by drawing israel in? >> well, they're winning the p.r. battle because the western media is allowing them to. and they're also winning in the sense that the obama administration has refused to cut off funding to the palestinian authority even though it has now announced a partnership with hamas. so you can make the argument that u.s. taxpayer dollars are going towards aiding and abetting a terrorist group, a designated terrorist group, illegally that is currently engaged in a war against our ally and murdering its own civilians in the process. >> it's important to keep this in mind as you watch, you know, the darkness there in israel. we're so far away. they're in gaza, and wonder why, why are we covering this? why is this all over every major channel? those are some of the reasons why. brooke, good to see you. officials have identified

the nationality of roughly 250 people aboard this plane shot down over ukraine. and while another 45 or so have not been identified and may include a number of americans, up next we will ask what the u.s. military is now doing. general jack keen is here. plus, 60 americans died when russia accidentally shot down a korean jet isn't the 1980s. we'll look at how president ronald reagan responded to that disaster when we come back. what can your fidelity greenline do for you? just take a closer look. it works how you want to work. with a fidelity investment professional... or managing your investments on your own. helping you find new ways to plan for retirement. and save on taxes where you can. so you can invest in the life that you want today. tap into the full power of your fidelity greenline. call or come in today for a free one-on-one review. every time you take advil liqui-gels you're taking the pain reliever that works faster

on tough pain than extra strength tylenol. and not only faster, stronger too. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil. fact. every time you take advil you're taking the medicine doctors recommend most for joint pain. more than the medicine in aleve or tylenol. the medicine in advil is the number one doctor recommendation for joint pain. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil. ♪ nothing's missed with tenatwist ♪ ♪ don't miss a beat...

♪ nothing's missed with tenatwist ♪ ♪ oooh discover the fearless protection of tena. so absorbent even when you twist not a drop escapes. ♪ nothing's missed with tenatwist ♪ zing! need new gear? then you belong at bass pro shops for huge savings during our summer sale and clearance event. like 33% off tournament pro micro spins. and take 33% off all in-stock towable tubes. ♪

♪ start a team. join a team. walk to end alzheimer's. visit alz.org/walk today. breaking tonight, secretary of state john kerry just issuing a statement on malaysia air on this flight shot down over ukraine killing over 298 people. secretary kerry saying in part "we are reviewing whether any american citizens were aboard this flight. the u.s. government remains prepared to assist with a credible international investigation any way we can. and we will continue to be in

touch with all relevant partners as we seek the facts of what happened today" talking about how we are horrified by this crash. and there are no words to adequately express our condolences. sources say this airplane was brought down by a surface-to-air missile. as the u.s. continues to work on finding exactly where that missile was fired from and who fired it. a big question on everyone's mind tonight, what is the u.s. prepared to do about it? retired four-star general jack keen is a former vice army chief of staff and a fox news military analyst. general, good to see you tonight. do you have any doubts this is a surface-to-air missile? >> oh, absolutely not. i don't think there's probably much doubt about that the pro-russian separatists are the likely culprits who fired this thing. as you pointed out in earlier in the program they shot down two other aircraft this week. and they were sort of proud of the fact that they shot this one down until they found out it was an airliner. >> so do you believe this has the fingerprints of vladimir

putin on it or this is sort of a rogue group of folk who is are pro-russian in the ukraine and not really taking their orders from putin on something like this? >> audience really has to understand this is a very important point, putin is fighting a proxy war. he was able to intimidate and able to annex it. the ukrainians are pushing back. he's got his fsb, intelligence people, special ops leaders, these are officers in eastern ukraine leading a movement to undermine that part of that country's government and to take control of it. this is a proxy war that he's watched the iranians do quite successfully for 30 years. and his objective is a redesign of the international order, particularly as it applies to russia. so the focus should be on putin and russia. >> well, when you say that, what does that mean? right now putin is saying it was the ukrainians. reports are the people we believe did it have already taken the black boxes and on

their way to moscow with them. unconfirmed but that's what we're being told. we're not going to get any legitimate investigation into this thing out of russia, so how do we do any of that? >> well, i think, you know, the technology will allow us to be able to confirm where that missile was launched from and who was in that vicinity. so i think we're going to be able to get our fingerprints on where that came from and who's likely to do it. i think the circumstantial evidence is already there, megyn. it's quite overwhelming. and i believe we should hear the clarion call for the united states over this. not just moral outrage and condemnation, but finally what are we going to do about it? and you ask that question. and certainly the ukrainians for months have been asking us for military technology, for equipment and for training to assist them with this proxy war that putin is fighting against them. and we have denied that to them. we should also put troops in other parts of europe,

significantly more than what we did, to help guarantee the safety and security of those countries so putin does not get overly aggressive about it. certainly missile defense where we took it out of should be put back in again in eastern europe. and listen, megyn, given what we've been talking about for the last three weeks with isis on the move in the middle east and the chaos and upheaval in the middle east and aggressive china, we have got to stop the december mags that's taking place with the united states military and returning it to pre-world war ii numbers, makes no sense whatsoever. >> you heard it from a democrat tonight carl levin saying that this certainly looks like an act of war. general jack keane, good to see you. we are not sure how the u.s. may respond to this. we do know the world is watching. john bolton is a former u.s. ambassador to the united states and a fox news contributor. ambassador, good to see you

tonight. so if it's an act of war and if they determine that russia is behind it, where do we go from there? >> well, i'm not sure that we're going to be able to prove to anybody's satisfaction as a point of law that a russian finger pushed the trigger. i don't think that's the issue. i think the issue is what this tragedy demonstrates about the nature of the russian regime under putin and the way russia has conducted its business over the past ten years. and i think it should be a wakeup call not simply in the context of the conflict in ukraine, but for the united states and europe generally about what russia's up to and how we should respond. and i think the american response, the nato, european response should go well beyond simply readjusting the sanctions policy with respect to ukraine. >> how so? >> well, i think we've got to begin to treat russia like the adversary that putin is currently demonstrating it to

be. i think that means going back in to poland and the czech republic and re-establishing our missile defense. >> something we gave up without much of a pushback when they asked us to. >> remember we were pressing the reset button at the beginning of the obama administration because relations were so bad when he took office. look, this has been a policy of appeasement. and while i don't think anybody could have foreseen this specific tragedy, it is entirely understandable that something like this has happened because of the way putin has perceived american weakness. and i think we've got to change both the reality and the perception of that. we need to bring the europeans along. we need some leadership. i don't see it at the moment. >> realistically under this president do you think we're going to get anything other than an uptick in sanctions? >> i think basically, no. i think this is the way it's going to be for the next two and a half years. you already see putin today has blamed the shootdown on the ukrainian government for the

conflict that's going on in eastern ukraine. tomorrow the u.n. security council will meet in emergency session at ukraine's request. you'll see the russian propaganda machine in full defense mode. and i think the pressure that he'll now apply to the europeans will reflect and obama we'll announce three or four more sanctions and it simply won't slow putin down. >> ambassador bolton, thank you. >> thank you. well, on at least three other occasions jets were shot down by military forces including an incident in 1983 when russia shot down a korean airliner that had more than 60 americans on board. up next, what we can learn from how president reagan handled that. >> with our horror and our sorrow there's a righteous and terrible anger. it would be easy to think in terms of vengeance, but that is not a proper answer. we want justice and action to see that this never happens again. wondering what that is? that, my friends, is everything.

and with the quicksilver card from capital one, you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase. not just "everything at the hardware store." not "everything, until you hit your cash back limit." quicksilver can earn you unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you could possibly imagine. say it with me -- everything. one more time, everything! and with that in mind... what's in your wallet? reward card withu a new volkswagen turturbo.ged and with that in mind... so why are we so obsessed with turbo? because there's nothing more exhilarating than a powerful ride. and you can get that in places you might not expect. like the passat. and also in the fun-to-drive jetta. in fact, volkswagen has sold more turbos than any other brand over the last ten years. that is a lot of turbo. vo: hurry in and you can get a $1,000 turbocharged reward card when you lease a new 2014 passat s for $219 a month.

i'm d-a-v-e and i have copd. i'm k-a-t-e and i have copd, but i don't want my breathing problems to get in the way my volunteering. that's why i asked my doctor about b-r-e-o. once-daily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs for a full 24 hours. and breo helps reduce symptom flare-ups that last several days and require oral steroids, antibiotics, or hospital stay. breo is not for asthma. breo contains a type of medicine

that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. breo won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. breo may increase your risk of pneumonia, thrush, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking breo. ask your doctor about b-r-e-o for copd. first prescription free at mybreo.com

thank ythank you for defendiyour sacrifice. and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. back now to the breaking news on the shootdown of a malaysian passenger jet, all 298 on board were killed. and 23 americans may be among them. we are working to confirm that. there were 23 americans on the passenger list, we are told. secretary kerry moments ago saying "we are horrified by the crash of malaysia airlines flight mh17. there are no words to adequately express our condolences to the families of the nearly 300

victims. we are reviewing whether any americans were aboard that flight." and he goes on. some may remember back in 1983 korean airlines flight 007 was shot down on its way to south korea by soviet union fighter pilots when it drifted into soviet air space. on board that flight over 60 americans including a congressman. four days later president reagan addressed the nation. >> make no mistake about it, this attack was not just against ourselves or the republic of korea. this was the soviet union against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations everywhere. it was an act of barbarism born of a society which wantonly disregards human rights and value of human life and seeks constantly to expand and dominate other nations. >> our fox news digital politics editor joins us now. it was four days later, it was from the oval office. today, president obama came out

when the events were unfolding. it was early. they were not all understood. so he couldn't do the comprehensive address. but there is a discussion about leadership underway tonight. and you hear president reagan and just makes you feel something, chris. >> well, i tell you what, reagan wanted americans to feel was reassured and resolute. he wanted them to feel that the united states was responding. you have to remember this was a very dicey time. when reagan was speaking it was an incredibly dangerous time. the soviet union and more importantly our european allies were very uncertain about this new reagan hard line approach against the soviet union deploying new missiles to eastern europe, star wars as it was called, all these new approaches had people feeling very nervous and soviets saying ronald reagan was an aggressive dangerous person. when this happened ronald reagan and his team, george schultz

especially, went on and said this is barbarism and this is the kind of conduct that tells you what the soviet regime is. and they turned the tide on the discussion of the cold war and on the discussion of reagan's plans by making clear what kind of conduct that was. >> uh-huh. i mean, president obama has been accused of, you know, "leading from behind," of being too passive when it comes to our challenges in the world. when mitt romney called russia our greatest geopolitical plet, president obama mocked him at the presidential debate. thousand we find ourselves in this position tonight where there may have been an act of war by russia that has taken 298 lives. and what we've heard so far today from the president is that this may be a tragedy. and now i'm going to go fund raise in new york. >> his endless talking, his endless fund raising, his endless effort to control every 15 minutes of every news cycle zaps him of the ability to speak with authority and resolution

when he needs to. he can't go to the oval office and give an address because he has a packed schedule trying to create microbursts of buzz to raise $25 on womens issues or do something else. and he has denied himself and by extension the nation the ability to have a president who can sit in the oval office and speak with that kind of clarity because he's always speaking. >> it makes him look unconnected and makes a lot of americans feel unrepresented. there's no leader who's going to sort of be the comforter in chief. explain to us what this means. how concerned should we be? even if there aren't any americans on board. a terrible terrorist attack happened today. put it in perspective. instead we have a president at a double fundraiser in new york city and secretary of state spokesperson on the heels of her boss saying how horrified they are she tweets something -- hold on, here it is from jen psaki, great piece by my former

colleague and links to something about being informed and fashionable is natural for women. i'm not saying she shouldn't promote her friend. i'm saying maybe wait until the day after almost 300 people have been murdered. >> the slaves to the hash tag are many in washington today. it's not just in that administration. and it is the desire to be in the discussion all of the time. but i would submit this, the advantage to being the leader of the unipower, the singular peak power in the world is people will wait and listen to you. you needn't make the photo op at the 495 bypass in delaware so you can stay on your speaking schedule. you would be entitled to do what ronald reagan did. do you know what ronald reagan did? he canceled the rest of his vacation and flew back to washington, d.c. they didn't have all the facts either, but he said and wrote about it in his diary that he didn't want to do it but he knew he had to. he knew he needed to end his vacation in california, go back to washington, d.c. and show his

resolve in the face of aggression. that is not what happened tonight. >> and he talks about how he spent the whole day writing that speech draft after draft sitting next to the white house pool because he wanted to get it just right. he thought he'd go for a swim and burn off steam and decided i can't do it. i've got to keep writing this speech and make it just right. i want to ask you this because the president -- president obama in his defense may be trying to telegraph, you know, keep calm. terrorism only works if it terrorizes you. like i'm going to go about and do my thing, you go about and do your thing, americans don't really want to be terrorized. they don't want the fear of god put in them. they want more than a word of wow what a tragedy. but speak to the tone we're still good. >> the terrorists will have already won if the president does not go and suck up to a bunch of billionaires in new york to raise money for the democratic national committee. is that the idea? the idea is if he does not go

and apreen and solicit funds, that's a new one. >> when you put it like that, you may have a point. mr. stirewalt, good to see you. >> you bet. >> with no idea where this came from and who fired it, there's speculation but there's not evidence yet, there's not cold hard factual conclusions, now turning to a group of pro-russian ukrainians, that's who folks are zeroing in on. but exactly who is this group? our own leland vittert spent two weeks with this group. moscow will tell you this is simply an organic revolution of insurgents fighting for their freedom. but go ahead and take a look at the buildings they have taken over. these don't look like citizen soldiers. i make a lot of purchases for my business.

and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 50,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account. and i earn 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at office supply stores. with ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. travel, gift cards, even cash back. and my rewards points won't expire. so you can make owning a business even more rewarding. ink from chase. so you can.

breaking tonight as we follow developmentings of a passenger jet shot down over ukraine today. we are fweting live pictures from andrews air force base where president obama expected to arrive back in washington any moment now. appears he is, from his fundraisers in new york. the latest reports from intel sources suggesting that pro-russian ukrainians, so they're in ukraine but they're pro-russian. they're part of this separatist movement. may have launched this missile that took out the jet. our own leland vittert was covering this situation in crew yan just a couple of months ago. he spent some realtime with this group. leland, what can you tell us about them? >> quality time, megyn. and they are a scary bunch. it is long been believed that the pro-russian separatists are commanded by shadowy members of the russian special forces and intelligence communities acting basically as advisors providing strategic guidance and weapons from moscow. over the past few weeks they have become highly successful shooting down ukrainian military

planes flying over ukraine. this is where it gets interesting. about the same time the malaysian plane went down a separatist leader wlo goes by the name of igor posted this on the russian equivalent of facebook saying, and i'm going to quote here translating the russian, we shot down an antov 26 used by the ukrainians near the city of torez, donetsk people's republic. we warned, he continues, don't fly in our sky. soon after that the tweet was deleted. now of course comes the question who actually was in control of that surface-to-air missile battery. back on june 29th russian separatists posted a photo on twitter bragging about having taken over an sa-11 launching system from a base in eastern ukraine. so who really are the rebels and their leadership including i fwrks or? a ukrainian who loves mother russia or a russian special forces or intelligence officer leading the rebels? adding to the evidence here,

megyn, if the ukrainians put out intercept they say rebel leaders first bragging about shooting down a plane then realizing it's an airliner and at that point their commanders were none too pleased on this tape, megyn. >> and they forget to realize that on the internet twitter and these other devices are forever. leland, thank you. "hannity" is live at the top of the hour and we'll be back with more news on both these stories in a couple moments. don't go away. p. all five of yo. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. introducing at&t mobile share value plans... ...with our best-ever pricing for business. for over 19 million people. [ mom ] with life insurance, we're not just insuring our lives...

we're helping protect his. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow. transamerica. at legalzoom virtually all yourof important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business, protect your family, and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

hey pal? you ready? can you pick me up at 6:30? ah... (boy) i'm here! i'm here! (cop) too late. i was gone for five minutes! ugh! move it. you're killing me. you know what, dad? i'm good. (dad) it may be quite a while before he's ready, but our subaru legacy will be waiting for him. (vo) the longest-lasting midsize sedan in its class. introducing the all-new subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru.

we're going to be back live tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern with breaking developments on both of these big stories tonight, the one about the malaysia plane and of course what's happening in israel. join us then. in the meantime thanks for watching. i'm megyn kelly. here's sean hannity live. welcome to this live breaking news edition of "hannity." we are following two developing stories out of israel and ukraine tonight. just hours ago israel launched a major ground offensive in the gaza strip sending thousands of troops into the region. now the israeli army says the operation is meant to strike a significant blow to hamas and the group's terror infrastructure. in a moment we'll have a report from the ground in gaza. a malaysian airlines passenger jet carrying 298 people was shot down over eastern ukraine killing everybody on board. u.s. officials believe the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile, but the origin of the missile is still unclear at this hour. for the very latest details we