segment. again, thanks for watching us tonight. ms. megyn warming up in the bullpen. i'm bill o'reilly. the spin stops here because we're defing out for you. breaking tonight, a new public enemy number one. the fbi desperate to discover the identities of two terrorists who may be americans. welcome to "the kelly file" everyone. i'm megyn kelly. earlier today the fbi director holding an on the record briefing with fox news and other media outlets addressing the recent terror threats against america. but it was a little reported fact that is raising serious concerns tonight. the fbi now believes two of the biggest stars of the horrifying isis propaganda video may be from this country. we normally do not show terrorist propaganda, but we are making a limited exception tonight because the fbi is

sounding the alarm on these guys and appears to need some help finding them. first we want to warn you that the video is very hard to watch. it shows you the lengths these terrorist wills go to in order to recruit westerners for jihad. it also shows you the depths of their hatred for anyone who disagrees with them. here's a brief look. >> we're here in the 17th division military base just outside the city of raqqa, and we're here with the soldiers of bashar. you can see them digging their own graves in the very place where they were stationed. the very place where they were stationed terrorizing the muslims of raqqa. will be carried out on these same soldiers by the brothers from the -- that captured them. and behind them you can see the officers residence filled with bullet holes and artillery shells from the islamic state. this is the end of every -- that

we get a hold of. this is the end. they said that we abandon the front and stop fighting and turn our guns toward the muslims. they lied. they lied. we are -- and only beginning to intensify. the fighting has just begun. >> that man speaking perfect english then goes onto shoot all of those men in the head. catherine herridge is our chief intelligence correspondent live for us tonight in washington. catherine. >> megyn, i was in that briefing today with the fbi director when he confirmed that the race is onto identify two isis members with north american accents. also confirmed that propaganda video is now being scrubbed by fbi investigators to identify the men. the standard protocol is applying facial recognition technology and a voiceprint

analysis against existing da databases. the leadership, a long-time associate of osama bin laden was dead, comey said he was not at all confident that the threat believed to include bombs with nonmetallic explosives had passed the. "i believe the group still exists and i don't want them to know what i know. i think we must operate under the assumption until i have reason to believe otherwise that it should still be at the top of my list." on whether the khorasan plot was imminent, comey acknowledged they are dealing with limited intelligence on the ground in syria and iraq and it was too great a risk to wait any longer. what i could see concerned me very much, the director said. that they were working towards an attack and the challenge for us given the limited visibility it was hard to say whether that's tomorrow, three weeks from now or three months from now. but it's the kind of threat you have to operate under the assumption that it is tomorrow. as for the air campaign the fbi director said it was likely to embolden isis and make the group

even more determined to strike the u.s. domestically because they want to lead the global jihadist movement. and they can't do that without hitting the home run of successful strike in this country, megyn. >> catherine, thank you. so just how worried should we be? seth jones has worked in various capacities for u.s. special operations command including in iraq. he is with the rand corporation, a national security firm. seth, thank you for being here tonight. and so that tape, when you hear that perfect english and the fbi seems to be suggesting they believe this man is american, possibly canadian, what do you make of it? >> well, the bigger picture here is that there have been a growing number of americans and westerners more broadly that have gone to fight against the united states in both iraq and syria. this seems to be an unfortunate pattern. and i think you're looking at exactly what we just heard, facial recognition. and a whole range of things including the size of this man and running him against databases of individuals we believe have left the united

states. >> where do they start? they don't know who this guy is, but by releasing a portion of this video -- i mean, the video is public for people who want to consume it. we obviously will not be offering it. it's an hour long. but by releasing his image, what we can see of it, listening to his voice, is there any hope of increasing the chances of finding him and his partner also featured on the tape? >> yeah, i think there is a chance. especially helpful to have some background imagery from the video. so you can actually see where they are. and if there is intelligence about any of these individuals, signals intelligence or other intelligence collected from that area, cell phones for example, you can actually geolocate someone in that area. so if you get somebody that recognizes a voice, you get the location and intelligence picked up from that area, you can pinpoint generally somebody's location there. >> all right. let's move onto what they've said now about khorasan, which is they keep calling it khorasan.

this is the other group we bombed. we bombed isis when we bombed syria the other night, and we also bombed this group khorasan, which is al qaeda. and there's been real question about why we're not just calling it al qaeda, because no one's ever heard of khorasan, but a lot of people know who al qaeda is. my question to you, seth, is the reason we're not calling it khorasan because of sound bites like this one i refer to the control room to sound bite number three. >> we have struck significant blows against al qaeda's leadership. al qaeda's leadership on the border region between pakistan and afghanistan has been decimated. we took out osama bin laden and much of al qaeda's leadership in afghanistan and pakistan. we took out osama bin laden. much of al qaeda's leadership in afghanistan and pakistan, and leaders of al qaeda affiliates in yemen and somalia. the core al qaeda leadership in afghanistan and pakistan has been decimated. >> what do you think? >> well, i don't know exactly why that khorasan was chosen by u.s. government agencies. it doesn't appear they call

themselves that, at least in syria. they're al qaeda. they should probably be called al qaeda. these are individuals who have been involved in al qaeda operations from south asia, from iran and other locations and are plotting attacks with the coordination of -- back in pakistan against targets in the united states and europe. but let's be frank about this. this is al qaeda. this goes back to the core in pakistan, the very group that we have already said and administration officials have said we have defeated. we clearly have not. >> they're now saying -- the fbi director today was saying we killed some senior folks in those strikes. but the vast majority it looks like most of the leadership is in tact. i mean, that's not good. and they were plotting an attack against the united states of america. so how concerned should we be? >> well, it's not entirely clear how imminent the attack was. it looked like at the very least there were plots underway from

syria through turkey into europe and the u.s. there are individuals, abu hali for example who is still working for this organization. he has not been killed. they've got a number of individuals that have not been killed. and u.s. and other western organizations have already verified they haven't been killed. the organization continues to operate with jabhat al nusra, another affiliate, as long as this continues to be a safe haven, we should be concerned. >> seth, i've been asking most of my guests this, the president ran for the white house on the promise that he was going to change course from the bush foreign policy. and many americans believed in that change suggesting cowboy diplomacy didn't work, we needed somebody who would withdraw from the middle east and these wars that we had gotten involved in and that that would somehow make these terrorists less focused on us at least. as we look at the world today, do we have a judgment on whether that worked?

>> well, i think clearly it has not so far. i mean, we have to look at this -- and i don't want to overstate this, but we have to look at it almost like we looked at the cold war. this is a generational struggle against an extremist ideology. it's not going to be fixed if we move out. and we pull out of the area. just remember, we were attacked on 9/11 from afghanistan and we were not there. we had no forces there. so these people are not going to stop if we leave. >> seth jones, thank you, sir. >> thanks, megyn. the state department recently had to apologize for promoting the musings of a particular muslim cleric. so why did the president yesterday quote that very same cleric before the united nations? state department spokesperson marie harf is here. and up next, is there an imminent threat to the new york city subway system? the disturbing warning from iraq's prime minister and new details from officials here tonight. plus, new evidence that isis may have just killed hundreds in

its first attack using chemical weapons. what this means for the fight ahead.

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new developments tonight on the threat on the homeland announced by iraq's prime minister today. foreign fighters in the islamic state were said to be planning attacks on major subway systems in the united states and paris. the announcement appeared to take u.s. officials by surprise. trace gallagher has the story. trace. >> megyn, now deputy secretary of state for iraq and iran said he and vice president biden just met with the iraqi prime minister and when the prime minister talked about plot against subways he was speaking in general terms about the threat of isis fighters. not about a specific threat, which is odd because today the iraqi prime minister was very specific saying the plot was the work of u.s. and french citizens who joined isis in iraq and that even though the suspects were

arrested, the plot has not been thwarted. the administration was surprised because president obama just met with the iraqi prime minister yesterday and there was never a mention of a planned attack. and certainly the new york governor, new york city mayor, police chief and the fbi didn't think the prime minister was talking in general terms because security at all new york city subways was immediately increased despite them having no confirmation of an active plot. listen. >> it is all based on that comment from the prime minister. and we very quickly sought to determine within the intelligence community was there any thing that he said that related to anything we were looking at. and as of this afternoon there is not. >> the department of homeland security tells fox news the air strikes in syria may have disrupted attack planning but not eliminated it. and both dhs and the fbi warned the air strikes could embolden home grown extremists inside the

united states. also the global news channel vice news interviewed a canadian citizen in mosul, iraq, who claims to be fighting with the islamic state. in the interview he specifically said that new york was a top target for isis fighters. megyn. >> trace, thank you. for more we're joined by buck sexton, former cia officer and nypd intelligence specialist. gentlemen, thank you both. michael, let me start with you. do you believe this? the iraqi prime minister says it wasn't in process and the plot has not been thwarted and now our officials are saying what? >> it goes to show you when you have intelligence fed by a foreign service we doept get the chance to vet it. and buck knows it better than anybody. and that's really important because we put so much more into the information we receive in terms of vetting it, making sure there's a polygraph following folks. that's what we do. otherwise you get this kind of reaction. >> uh-huh. >> and it gets to be unsustainable because every time you ramp up it costs money. you get fatigue as a result of

this. very important to have the right accurate information. >> you can't just willy nilly be offering these threats if they haven't been checked out to the public, buck, because there's already a general sense in the country that the terror threat is elevated right now. >> we absolutely know, megyn, that they want to. that the islamic state and these other groups, al qaeda affiliates of all kinds, they want to hit the homeland. and new york is the number one target still. that hasn't changed. in fact, the plot that was discussed today though it seems like they're walking back the threat on this was reminiscent of a previous attempt that did get to the operational phase in 2009. the joint terrorism task force and fbi were able to stop that plot. but that was in the operational phase and right along the lines of the kind of plot we're worried about now. as to the iraqis might have gotten this wrong on the foreign intelligence side of things, i think it's likely they had someone in custody saying they were in the process of planning this kind of attack. the iraqi government is going to

tell us there's a threat to the homeland because we're obviously going to bolster our support of what they're doing over there even more. >> that's a good point. they want us involved and have reason to scare us. michael, let me ask you. the one thing that was confirmed is that this group, khorasan, it's al qaeda, al qaeda, that we also bombed on monday night as we bombed isis did have what our administration says was imminent plans to attack the homeland. and they have not been decimated. in fact, reports today are that they actually survived most of the initial strikes and are alive and well and continuing to plot. so how concerned should we be? >> question becomes what's their capability to project into this country? what do they have here in terms of assets, resources? are they relying on people to come out of the woodwork saying i'm going to join the jihad? are they inspired but not instructed? what element have they been able to put in here? this threat has been in the intelligence community for months now. and the question becomes where are they along the operational

timeline. i do believe that they've been disrupted. it's hard to plan when you have bombs falling all around you, but the question becomes who has gone over there or how easy is it for them to get back here. one of the chief concerns. >> and we talked about the lone wolf aspect of this. i have to ask about edward snowden because a lot of people have said, you know, people who thought he was a hero had counterparts who believed he was a villain because he may have undermined our security. has he? do you believe we may not detect a plot now because of the pullback the administration did after those revelations about how they were looking at certain data? >> i'm still wondering why there's so many defenders of snowden's release of information about u.s. collection efforts abroad. there's no constitutional protection for that. rational national security reason -- >> but are we in more danger today, do you think? >> assuming that -- i never saw what that information actually contained, megyn. but assuming it is what the government said it is, which

would be a massive troef of just exactly how we collect intelligence in war zones and abroad, yes. in terms of disruption by the khorasan group, that's assumed because we dropped some bombs. we don't know how far along that plot is what stage it could have been. if they have individuals already trained in europe or operational on their way into the u.s., obviously bombing a camp in the middle of syria doesn't do anything. so there's an assumption that it's progress, but we don't actually know if it stopped a plot that may be ongoing. >> michael, give us some perspective before we go tonight. the odds of being killed in a terrorist attack even in today's day and age when we're at war with isis and al qaeda. >> we have incredibly low -- here in new york city we've worked very carefully. doesn't mean that somebody can't do something? no. but given the millions and millions of people who enjoy life in this country every day, the threat of a terrorist attack effecting you and your life at this point in time very, very

minimal. >> important to keep in mind. thank you both. we have learned isis may have carried out its first chemical attack. plus, big news from washington. attorney general eric holder is stepping down. but why now? and what does that mean for the investigations into actions by mr. holder and his d.o.j.? congressman daryl issa will answer that question? >> okay, you know, mr. attorney general, i need a yes or no before you go into the ♪ there it is... this is where i met your grandpa. right under this tree. ♪ (man) some things are worth holding onto. they're hugging the tree. (man) that's why we got a subaru. or was it that tree? (man) introducing the all-new subaru outback. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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breaking tonight, new reports from lawmakers in iraq who believe the terror army known as isis may have carried out its first successful attack using chemical weapons.

and more than 100 iraqi soldiers are said to be dead now as a result. pete hegsheath. a fox news contributor. pete, the numbers have differed. we've heard 300 are dead as a result. we've heard 100. we've heard it might be less than that. bottom line seems to be they're using chemical weapons now. what does that do to this conflict? >> well, this should surprise nobody. of course the world's most dangerous weapons in the hands of a pure evil organization as the president characterized them in the u.n., this is exactly what they're going to do. alongside beheadings, alongside threats against the homeland, if they get this kind of weapon, they're going to use it. and they're going to seek to project it as far and wide as they can. what's so concerning is this iraqi army unit was under siege for over a week and they were not able to be saved. it is a demonstration of how feeble some of our allies on the ground are, how vicious our enemy truly is. hopefully, megyn, this is a

galvanizing tool for those in the west and regional folk who is should understand now, if not now, then when, and if not there to take on this threat that will come to them in swror jordan and turkey and elsewhere, when are they going to respond. the president should use this to wake up this coalition to get those regional boots on the ground. >> you raise a good point about the failure to save this group of iraqi soldiers because they were abducted a week ago. and now a week later they're murdered by chemical weapons. and general keane has been saying on our air for days now that if we go in with the iraqi army, if that's who we're relying on in iraq to fight this battle, we're dealing with a "we can" folding. these are the ones we're expecting to take the place of american boots on the ground. >> even with u.s. air strikes, megyn, the iraqi army still is not a force capable of going on the offensive against isis. the same thing with the famed peshmerga, who had a great reputation but have since been

hallowed out by a lack of good equipment and -- within their ranks. the free syrian army isn't what everyone is billing it to be. this is where a president has to be a leader. just like the beheadings shocked the american consciousness. this should shock the international consciousness and should be used as leverage to convince those regional allies now is your time to step up to be that ground force. otherwise this rhetoric of destroy is never going to meet the reality on the ground because air strikes don't hold ground. >> could it have the opposite effect? we're dealing with terrorists. they won't obey any rules of law. why should we send american soldiers to fight these people who use chemical weapons against the troops against whom they fight? >> well, that's why what i'm saying right now is regional allies. i'm saying this should be something where we don't have to send american boys to do it. we find regional allies that the president's been talking about, all these folks that want to provide air support. air support's not enough. gulf war in '91, 2003, there has

to be u.s. leadership. and as general keane and others have said, there's going to be an element of that. but u.s. conventional forces are not going to be ones taking the lead at this time. the president's been clear about that. galvanizing events -- david cameron is going to be in front of his parliament tomorrow. he needs to make the case. >> pete, thank you. >> thank you. we have significant news tonight on the controversial cleric held up by the president yesterday during mr. obama's united nations speech. that report and the state department's marie harf just ahead. plus, has president obama become just like president bush in how he's fighting this new war on terror, and are we officially back in it? dana and marc thiessen are here next. >> we must be steadfast in the face of these cold-blooded killers. the only way to deal with them is to bring them to justice. >> the only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. (vo) you are a business pro. solver of the slice. teacher of the un-teachable. you lower handicaps... and raise hopes.

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>> you heard it here first when we broke down president obama's speech and discovered a shift in tone that had our president sounding like his predecessor. reporters challenged the white house, the administration said quote, the attempts to draw parallels miss the comparisons. then, former bush speech writer sent more examples watch >> you can't reason with these people. there is no need to negotiate with them. >> there can be no reasoning no negotiation with this brand of evil. >> we must be steadfast in the face of these cold blooded killers you cannot negotiate with these people. you cannot, you know, you cannot hope for the best when it comes to these people. therapy is not going to work. the only way to deal with them is bring them to justice.

>> only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. >> president bush's chief speech writer is now an american enterprise institute fellow. dana marino, welcome to you both. i encourage viewers to go to the kelly files it's dead on. it could be the same man, yet, the president could not have been more critical of president bush's foreign policy. >> look the white house is denying there are parallels here a few months ago president obama was saying the tide of war is receding. now, he's at war with a network of killers so the idea this isn't a shift is absurd

any president can deliver a strongly-worded statement the hard part is making decisions necessary to protect the country. when they run out of bombing targets is he going to listen to his commanders on the ground? or going to ignore people? is he going to make the same mistakes in afghanistan? >> when secretary gates book came out, he said it became clear to him president obama didn't believe the afghanistan policy. when president bush said these words, policy came out of a principle. speech writing and rhetoric follows. in some ways, now, you have a policy trying to catch up. i think the white house and administration would have been better off if they'd just said of course it sounds the same the president fought terror like

president bush did. moving on. >> yes. >> they're trying to show the president obama has always been almost at war with president bush but doesn't need to be anymore. they have a common enemy they want to use language president bush used, i'm all for it. >> the question is viewpoint is what is the real policy? we've had a situation, barack obama ran for president saying we will change course. i'm running for president to change course. not continue george bush's failed foreign policy and fear mongering in iraq he went before the un and said i got us out of iraq. there are no troops left. i'm going to do the same in afghanistan, then, the terror army, known as isis, started beheading americans, threatening jihad, now, he sundays like he's

become george bush. >> yes. i know the problem because is that he's desperate to distinguish himself perfect george w. bush he seems more concerned about that the fact that he continues to, because he wants to show a difference of bush he's been adamant with no boots on the ground our military doesn't want to send tens of thousands of troops into iraq. they want air controllers to pick out targets and embed people with indij -- forces there. i think dana is right. he should say yes. we're fighting terror but it's the same enemy going to require all elements of national power. >> you look back at other things he said remember promises about the muslim world the day i'm inaugurated. the country looked at itself

differently and so will the muslim world i will make us safer with the muslim world, has he? >> if you ask americans do you feel safer today than six years ago, the answer is no. >> i think that there are two other problems in 2012, what was the land from campaign? al qaeda on the run. clearly from your previous reporting, tonight even al qaeda is not decimated. there is another big problem, it's a policy problem just months ago, the administration asked congress to withdraw authorization because they didn't need it anymore. now, all of a sudden they're basing actions, taken in syria, which i support on the use of military force. they're so not to

win the news cycle. i think communications could be more clear if they're to say yes, that is what we said then. we're going to use authorization to use military force, thank you very much. >> dana, good to see you, mark, you too. >> we heard mention of this man. sheik bin baya. up next, news on him tonight and the state department's marie hart. ♪ here's a good one seattle... what did geico say to the mariner?

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breaking tonight, new details on a controversial cleric president obama mentioned in his remarks to the united nations. turns out this man the same cleric at one point called for the death of u.s. soldiers overseas just issued another fatwa last week. npr suggests he's known as a "scholar scholar," there are serious questions about the decision to invoke this man. marie harf is the state department deputy spokeswoman. she's here live with me on the set. so the state department actually took down a tweet that they sent out touting him and his musings and saying we should not have done that. it was wrong. we deleted it. so how did you feel when you saw the president mention him at the united nations speech? >> well, megyn, thank you for having me first of all in set tonight. i think what the president was saying is that we need respected voices in the muslim world to stand up and reject isis'

ideology. we need people who other muslims listen to to stand up and do that. and this cleric that you mentioned, this scholar's scholar as you mentioned in your opening has done that. >> those aren't my words. >> i know. but you mentioned it. he issued a fatwa against isis. and if we can have these leaders use their platforms in the region to reject this really hateful ideology, that will help us in our fight against isis. >> i mean, it's good he has issued a fatwa against isis. but he also issued that other fatwa against us where he called for muslims to kill american troops in 2004. this is a problem, marie. >> well, i think there's some misinformation about there about some of the things -- >> there's no misinformation about that. he was the vice president of the organization that was headed by a terrible man named sheikh -- we won't let in the united states. he was president vice president of that organization for nine years when it sent out the fatwa calling for muslims to kill american troops. >> what we're judging him by is what he says very openly right

now about the fact that muslims should reject isis' ideology. he's rejecting the ideology of people who have killed americans. >> be honest, has this been embarrassing for you? >> not at all. >> why did the state department apologize for retweeting his musings? >> i have no idea why certain tweets are taken down or not taken down. >> you work for the state department. >> i do, i do. but what i will say when it comes to the president's speech it's important to stand up and say there are voices in the muslim world who will stand up and say isis does not represent them. >> right after they say kill americans. >> if that can convince one person not to join isis, that's a good thing sfwl all right. you handle yourself well. i apologize because they put you in a very difficult position today. it wasn't me. it was them. let's talk about the president's remarks and where we stand now with respect to this group isis. we have conflicting information today on whether there is some imminent threat to the homeland

and whether it's from isis or lone wolf. the iraqi prime minister came out and said the subway systems are basically going to get atta attacked. has that been thoroughly debunked? >> it has. the iraqi prime minister himself spoke to the state department in a meeting this afternoon saying there was not a direct threat to the united states that he was answering a general threat that foreign fighters could pose. he made very clear to us and we are saying publicly we are not aware of any credible direct threat to the united states. i said earlier i would feel as comfortable taking the new york subway today as i did yesterday. >> how comfortable is that? >> very comfortable. >> can be sketchy at times. >> we're always vigilant, we're always watching. but we just don't see that right now. >> let's talk about whether we had some failings to answer to in the creation and growth of isis. our own james rosen asked secretary kerry whether there

was an intelligence failure. whether we underestimated isil and whether we overestimated the iraqi troops. and john kerry refused to g that far in an interview with james, james clapper, the director of national intelligence did go that far this week when he sat down with david ignatius and said there was an intelligence failure. i can put it on the board what he said. this is a quote to "the washington post." we underestimated isil and overestimated the fighting capability of the iraqi army. so who has it right? director clapper or secretary k kerry? >> the quote you put up speak directly to the challenge when you're talking intelligence collection something i used to do at my former job at the cia. when you look at the strength of a fighting force, you are constantly re-evaluating that. i think people did not expect the iraqi army to melt away in the way that it did. i think isil was probably surprised by that. we did not expect them to

disintegrate in places like we saw. >> let's talk about that. i just spoke about this in my last segment that general keane, respected man, former vice chief of staff of the army, this is part of our problem over there not sending in combat troops, boots on the ground. that's a we can we're trying to play with this iraqi army and says if we don't ultimately send in american combat troops, and i quote, we're going to lose. >> i'm not exactly sure what lose means, but what i would counter with is the ultimate solution is not american combat troops on the ground. we couldn't prevent terrorism when we had over 100,000 troops on the ground in iraq. it's taking military action to degrade the capabilities, take our networks, leaderships, take our their financing and build a force on the ground that can hold this territory long-term. the iraqi security forces in iraq. we know that there are pockets -- >> those are the guys who just got rounded up -- >> they are. >> killed by chemical weapons.

and their fellow countrymen did not save them. >> we know there are still pockets of capable fighters. what we are going to do is send in american military advisors, which we've already been doing, to help them get back on their feet. we're going to send them weapons. we're going to train them. >> in a way that's going to lead to a better result than all the other advising we've been doing these past years. >> we've ramped up our efforts. we've given them more arms, more training. >> but they put the arms down and run. >> they're not anymore. i will say if you look what the iraqi military has done in conjunction over the past several weeks and months, really they've stepped up to the plate. there's a big challenge but we are going to standby them as we do as we fight this challenge. and as you know we're taking the fight to isil in syria. >> marie, good of you to be here tonight. >> thank you. >> good to see you. big news from washington tonight where attorney general eric holder says he's stepping down. but why not? and what about the investigations into actions by mr. holder that are ongoing now in congress? congressman daryl issa who has been spearheading those is here.

>> we have responded to the -- >> no, mr. attorney general, you're not a good witness. a good witness answers a question asked. so let's go back again. chico's t makes a statement -- your statement. fabulous. glamorous. fun-loving. one-of-a-kind. because you have stories to tell. what's your cover story? at chico's and chicos.com.

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breaking tonight, united states attorney general eric holder announces he is stepping down after six years. in a sentimental address the nation's first black attorney general thanked the president for giving him the opportunity he called the greatest honor of his life. but mr. holder's legacy is not without controversy. back in 2012 he became the first sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of congress

after refusing to turn over documents subpoenaed the previous year by the committee headed by my next guest, congressman daryl issa is chairman of the oversight and reform committee. congressman, good to see you tonight. mr. chairman, the fast and furious investigation, the one in which he was held in criminal contempt, a civil contempt case, still proceeding against him, will it continue now that he's leaving? >> yes, it will. and remember, megyn, the goal is to get the documents that were withheld. and on october 1st the justice department will either have to file yet another appeal or turn over what lawyers like yourself understand a privilege log. this will be the first time in history but a federal judge appointed by the president in fact has ordered that because their grounds that they shouldn't turn over what is effectively the materials related to their lie and cover-up of the fast and furious project that led to the murder of brian terry. that's really what we're looking

for. we believe the terri family and the american people have a right to know. >> so that is ongoing and will continue. do you believe that he is stepping down, you know, for reasons that are not political? that he's just had enough? >> no, he does everything for political reasons. he's often described himself as an activist. he's certainly admits that he wears two hats, one of them political. and announcing before the election that he's turning down -- turning back. but in fact no chance he'll be replaced prior to the election is a political event like so many things the attorney general has done. he could have waited until the day after the election. very clearly he wanted to get out in front of it before the election. >> because the republicans made -- >> that political calculation says a lot about an attorney general who has politicized an office that is supposed to be the highest law enforcement officer in the land. >> let's talk about it because obviously you're not a holder fan. that's obviously clear. >> we have a special relationship. >> you do. very special. you butted heads many times.

but the president came out today and said, you know, to the american people these are the things i believe he's done and he's done well. and these are just a couple of examples. he's prosecuted hundreds of terror cases. he's ratted out corruption and fought violent crime. he's tackled financial fraud. he's dealt with attacks on the voting rights act. he helped bring down the crime rate and incarceration rate by 10% over the last six years. that's why the president said he's done a superb job. >> well, the men and women of the justice department career professionals and the u.s. attorneys deserve the credit for a great deal of that. this attorney general has chosen to politicize his office. he's selectively gone after an awful lot of lawful citizens. and she's just simply not done his job well. now, having said that i'm sure in his mind he's done the best he could. he's certainly served his president in the way his president wants to be served. but to a certain extent, megyn,

that's part of the problem is that if the president's satisfied with an attorney general whose own inspector general had to testify only a week ago beforeto tell us that he had been obstructed time and time again from doing his job, his independent job in the case of overseeing parts of the justice department, then i think the president's listening to himself and not listening to the inspector general that was appointed and confirmed by the senate to be the watchdog therein justice. >> many people say that he is ied logically aligned with the president. many people believe if you want to know what president obama really thinks, look to what eric holder thinks. "new york times" saying, mr. holder has been the most prominent liberal voice of the administration and ticked off some examples. do you believe that, first of all, that they are completely ied logically aligned, and do you believe that his replacement

will be similar? >> well, it's hard for me to say how close they're aligned. he does seem to be close to the president along with valerie jared and others. i think there's very little chance there would be somebody similar confirmed by the senate -- >> can he get them in before democrats are at risk of losing the senate? >> senators absolutely positively even after this election, even if the senate changes hands during the lame duck, they're not going to have a lightning rod like eric holder. remember, eric holder is a man who issued a opinion that pardoning mark rich while he was still on the lam in the last days of clinton administration were okay. >> yeah. biggest tax cheat ever as o'reilly described him. chairman issa, thank you so much. much. >> t

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we leave out corn,wheat and soy. and we own where our dry food is made-100 percent! can other brands say all that? for nutrition you can trust and your pet will enjoy... does your food go beyond? learn more at purinabeyond.com. so some very famous baseball player is apparently retiring. and i got one thing to say, there's no crying, there's no crying in baseball. that's number one. number two, notwithstanding the fact that's going on, you have to watch "hannity" because i'm told the a-

we're told it started out as a peaceful gathering and got out of control. the protests first erupted after the august 9th police shooting of michael brown and unarmed teenager. it had since calmed down, but the demonstrations started again earlier this week after one of three brown memorials at the site of the shooting. tonight's protest following the police chief's apology to the family of michael brown in a video he said he's sorry that the body of the unarmed teen who was shot to death by an officer remained in the street too long after he was killed. that apology came the same day brown's parents were in washington to press for a full federal investigation. a state grand jury is still considering whether to file criminal charges. hannity is next. worth seeing. welcome to "hannity." this is a fox news alert. the chief law enforcement officer of the united states, the attorney general eric holder has announced that he is resigning from the obama administration after six years on the job.