we are back at noon estern time tomorrow. "happening now" starts now. a fox news alert. a delay in a california courtroom for where a judge is going to make a case against the killing of kate steinle. >> we are covering all of the news "happening now." nannies for.

and a would be carjacker gets more than he bargained for. it is all "happening now". >> and we begin with the 2016 presidential race and the unusual efforts of republican leaders to prevent any possible third party bid that will make it nearly impossible for the gop to take back the white house. i am patty brown in for jenna lee. >> and we are waiting now a new's conference from donald trump with the chairman of the rnc to talk about signing the pledge not to run as an independent. this is not just about trump. the rnc is asking all 17 candidates to get on board. several said they would. chris christie signed his right here on fox news.

>> i don't need him to meet with me before deciding whether to it do it or not. september 3rdrd. >> i signed a pledge when i ran for the u.s. senate and you have to support the nominee. >> i have sympathy for third parties and the third party ps provide pressure on the two parties to be better actually. >> we need to be unified and we need to win and mr. trump is figuring out a way to lessen the hurtful language and talk about the aspirations of the american people rather than prairing on their fears. >> chris wallace joins us editor of fox news sunday and named the alumni of the month by the hotkis school. you talked about mother theressa

and i was touched boy that whole thing. but any rate, you were one of the distinguished moderators in the august 6th gop debate and donald trump raised his hands and wont commit. maybe he's changed his mind now. what has changed in the month since then? >> it is so interesting. the whole thing about signing pledges, i don't know if i have ever seen it in a republican or democratic race. it is all about donald trump. no one has doubts about jeb bush and scott walker and others will support the party. the only question is donald trump and that's why the event is happening and the chairman of the republican party coming up to new york and taking the shuttle up to meet at the trump towers with mr. trump and

afterwards, they will have a new's conference together. i think there are published reports that trump will sign the pledge and support is the republican nominee and will not run as a third party candidate and you say what has changed than less than a month ago. on august, i think a couple of things. first of all, trump is a front runner and why not support the nominee when it looks like he might be the nominee. he knows it is an issue as the campaign goes on and debate in cnn and they will be bringing up the issue and they will be asked if you take the pledge. and this way he eliminates that and third and most important and increasing number of states, are going to put sore loser pledges on theirlsw9(có'ç ballot sayingt

run unless you support the party. states like north or south carolina and virginia. if donald trump is serious, he has to be in the ballot in three of those states. >> and the republicans remember when ross perot, ran as a independent and he sucked away enough republican votes to hand the election to bill clinton. and so, chris, committing to not run as an independent, if they get that commitment from trump is no small accomplishment for the rnc, right? >> oh, absolutely. there is no question that one or the other conventional politicians wins the republican nomination and goes up against hillary clinton and trump runs as a third party candidate it is more likely than not, he would keep the republican from winning the presidency and give it to

clinton or who ever the democrat is. getting him to say he will not go in the race and taking that off of the table is a huge accomplishment and that's the reason the chairman of the republican party making such an effort. it is important come next november. >> yeah, you and i were talking a moment ago, the polls, i was looking at the abc washington post pole. trump is up to 30 percent and up four points. i think that was the abc washington post poll. at any rate. they are you showing that, right? >> no, he's leading not only in the national polls and real clear politics that takes an average and puts it together, he's got a sizable field in the national polls and in iowaol one poll showed him and ben carson tied. and he's leading in new

hampshire and big lead in south carolina. he is the front runner of the nomination and no two ways about it and so it is important that he respects who ever the republicans pick p. >> right, all right, chris, thanks very much and good to see you and congratulations on the recent honor. i was impressed. >> i am glad you are impressed. i got my high school alumni of the month award. i don't know. whatever. you know what, october be is another month. namong all of your accomplishments, it is up there. okay, chris wallace, make sure to catch fox news sunday with chris wallace and he the sit down with the former vice-president dick cheney and his daughter liz, and they will weigh in on the iran nuclear deal and president's foreign policy now that he has enough

votes to keep congress from split its again. it airs this sunday and check your local listings for the show times. vice-president joe biden is on the road talking to voters but the trip has little to do with 2016. he met with jewish community leaders hoping to sale them on the nuclear deal. >> reporter: the vice-president spent a couple of hours with the jewish leaders and they are staunch supporters of israel. and the vice-president trying to convince them on the wisdom of cutting a nuclear deal. many of the people were deeply opposed to cutting a deal. it will give iran the means to wipe israel off of the map.

the vice-president said the deal is solid and compared to negotiating iowa ran with the old soviet union. >> if we can take the nuclear bomb off of the table, it's better dealing with bad guys than if we are dealing with the bad guys and the nuclear bomb is on the table. >> reporter: but there is plenty of opposition. demonstrators protested outside of the meeting and many of them democrats, and all concerned that iran will cheat on the deal and like president obama admitted within 15 years, iran can produce a bomb with little or no warning. >> that is totally unacceptable. 9/11 was almost 15 years ago and we remember it as it was yesterday and we'll not allow this to happen. >> reporter: the protestors said they would vote against and try to dislodge from office any

democrat or republican. there are no republicans, but democrats that are voting for the deal. that could be problematic for vice-president biden should he decide to throw his hat in the race. the vice-president is not yet decided and not sure his heart would be be in this after the death of his son, but it was one of his son's dying wishes that his father take a third run at the president so. we'll know what he is determined to do in a few weeks. >> thank you. sanctuary cities, and a heated debate. the judge is hearing evidence on whether an illegal immigrant will stand trial for the murder of kate stienle. andlong- time aide to hillary clinton testifying behind closed doors and another aide will

plead the fifth. and we want to hear from you. do you think that donald trump should sign the rnc pledge not to run as an independent. go to fox news.com/"happening now" to join the conversation. staying in rhythm...

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the secret service said that tickets are required to get close enough to view pope francis when he celebrates mass in philadelphia. the tickets will get you within five blocks of the altar. outside of that though, maybe even with that you may need bin pocullars and tickets will be required for the pope's speech outside of independence hall will on the 26th. a hearing continues on whether there is enough evidence to try illegal immigrant sanchez

in the murder of kate stienle. sanchez who has been deported admitted he fired the shot but insists it was an accident. we'll bring in our attorneys, thank you for joining us again. experts testified that the bullet appeared to have rick chaed off of the conkret walk way prior to hitting her. is this theory a key to the defense? >> it is, the ricochet theory is on whether he intended to kill miss stienle. it entered her back in a upward fashion. it was not circullar, it was rebbing tanningullar.

and -- if they show he showed a reckless disorder for human life in shooting in the area of the pier they can secure a second-degree murder in this case. >> the gun was reported stolen and sanchez found it he said on the bench. the defense attorney said it went off accidentally while sanchez was mishandling it. so ashley, what do you make of that? does this bolster the argument of an accident. >> it gives him a defense at this point. and that is a whole point to get more information and get the entire story and what law enforcement has done.

there is a number of other charges and a ton of others to be charges. he is a convicted felon and illegal for him to have the gun and deported and the gun in and of itself is a crime. that could life a lead or beyond. fell no murder is an option. at this point they are trying to determine the evidence and determine which charges are appropriate to go forward. they will try to get as many big charges as possible in this case. >> the hearing is to establish whether there is enough evidence to go to trial. do you anticipate possibly the charges down graded or others being added? >> it could happen. but here in california, the preliminary hearing is just a probable cause hearing. and so i wouldn't be surproduced if the judge gives the danyh6n<

permission to go forward for purposes of trial. that is clearly a separate issue. standard of proof and proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is higher than what the judge is bound by. i am interested to see with what the judge will do with the charges currently filed and if the da will file more charges as ashley mentioned. >> sanchez is a mexican national ñ ?a states five times before he shot kate. and ashley, do you believe his immigration status will find its way in the case somehow. >> i can tell you, the defense will fight hard to keep that out. and the judge will decide if it is relevant. it doesn't appear to be relevant. i think the state will try to get it in, but the defense will

probably be successful in keeping it out because it is not relevant. >> what about jury selection. a lot of people heard about the case. >> it is difficult. the defense is not moving for a change of venue for purposes of the trial, but you would have to live under a rock not to hear about this matter. it is heart breaking. and some way shape or form, the jury will be faced with can i be fair or impartial and that will be problematic for the defense. >> and all right. thank you both again for joining us. >> thank you. >> just getting word that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the machine accused of killing nine black church goers dill an roof.

earlier his attorney said he wanted to plead guilty but couldn't advise him what to do in terms of knowing what the prosecutors will do. that will change the dynamic and we don't know if a judge in federal court entered a not guilty plea and we'll wait and see what happens next. >> in the meantime one marine killed and others injured in a training exercise. this soldier lucky enough to survive a terrifying fall and what is done to make military training safer. >> and a tipster giving police a fake lead on three men that killed a officer. how investigators are making up for lost time.

 planning to reduce the size of its massive military. the people's liberation army will shrink from 3.2 to 2 million. it is 70 years since japan's defeat. china said the cuts are dow to rising personnel costs and advancing technology that allows the military to do with fewer troops. >> and a member of the army special operation forces is recovering after his chute failed to open properly in a training exercise. the photographs showed the terrifying scene as he fell three stories while soldiers conducted free fall jumps.

>> and a black hawk helicopter went down with four soldiers on board. none of the injuries were life threatening. in camp lejune in north carolina, a marine killed and a dozen injured after their helicopter made an extremely hard landing. here is the latest from the pentagon. >> there were two military helicopters that crashed. one resulted in a fatality. the military super stallion crashed and killing one marine and injured nine others. camp laleun e is home to the division. and it is from the aircraft group 29.

and in a statement, in addition to the one fatality, there were 11 marines injured. seven service members were attended to and six evaluated and scheduled for release. three transferred to the memorial hospital in table condition can one service member going to the medical center in greenville, north carolina. earlier wednesday a helicopter crashed in suburban denver. it crashed in the trees. as you can see. four soldiers inspector the helicopter in the routine training mission. the military is investigating both accidents. the marine corps is waiting for release of name pending next of kin, gregg. >> thousand its upon thousands

of refugees are flooding in europe. it is crippling border ares and leaving migrants dead. how are the european countries coping with the humanitarian crisis. and a former hillary clinton staffer plans to plead the fifth. his stance is serious calls some say for concern. listen up team, i brought in some protein to help rearrange the fridge and get us energized! i'm new ensure active high protein. i help you recharge with nutritious energy and strength to keep you active. come on pear, it's only a half gallon. i'll take that. yeeeeeah! new ensure active high protein. 16 grams of protein and 23 vitamins and minerals.

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we are waiting for a new conference on the search for three men who gunned down a police officer in illinois. the town of fox lake is rallying behind the victim's life. she is pushing through her grief to show support for the law enforcement. >> we lost somebody yesterday. a husband and son and brother and a friend. >> and joining us with the latest is matt fin live in chicago. >> reporter: it is day three in the search for the suspects who are called cop killers. and the set back with a woman who lied to police about spotting them. she was filed withul filing a false report. she will remain in jail until

she can pay the 100,000 bond. she claimed that a white male and a black male tried to get in her car. the suspects took off in response a police team swarmed the area for hours and turned out keiffer was lying. admitting she wanted to get attention from a family she nannies for. >> she said they were going to swab the car handle and that was one of the factors that led her to understand that her story would not hold up and she changed it. >> the false alarm aside. they have not reported witnesses or sightings. there is a massive manhunt and pursuit of information. officers are going door-to-door.

the community is grieving the death of the officer. what could help there is video surveillance to comb through and forensic evident from the initial crime scene. we are keeping an eye for the press conference on the update on the case. back to you guys. >> thank you. new developments in the hillary clinton e-mail scandal. a former staffer who installed the private server will plead the fifth if subpeonaed in the probe. another aide testified behind doors. and hillary clinton maintains any sensitive e-mail sent or received were not marked class foyed at the time. >> and tom depru is a constitutional law attorney. good to see you.

why would clinton set up her own personal server at home to be used exclusively what would be sensitive and secret information as secretary of state. and the guy who answers that is briap ta glia noset up the server and now invoking the fifth. what does that tell you? >> one, that puts to rest that it is a mere political dispute. much ado about nothing. if that was the case you you would not see them pleading the fifth in the context. you first get testimony from people in the lower rungs of the conspiracy. and often immunity deals. and you use that testimony and

evidence to get to the people at the top. it will be interesting to see if they strike a deal with this gentleman in order to get his testimony. >> hillary clinton's chief of staff is cheryl mills is behind closed doors with lawyers and the benghazi committee. she is answering questions. catherine chased her down the hallway and asked her important questions and here it is, take a listen. [inaudible] >> failed to report she asked her and that is important. failing to report a possible compromise of national defense information. and a lower threshold of classification is a violation of the law.

it is a crime. 18 usc793. do you envision criminal charges somewhere down the line? >> i think it is a real possibility at this point. hillary clinton herself worked on the watergate investigation and well aware in this circumstance, when you have lower ranking aides and taking the fifth and testify, they are putting together pieces of the puzzil and who knows what it may be. but at this point it is serious and they are looking at criminal charges and the variety of criminal statutes that might have been violated in this case. >> it appears that hillary e-mails that were classified when sent. point number one. point number two. there are new reports and evident that her staff tried to hide the extent of the

classification on the server. to hide that stuff, are you looking at obstruction of justice? >> it could be. if there was a pending investigation and. look it harkens back to watergate. not only the crime, but the cover up. and that's what you see when people realize a crime is committed, that may be a triggering point for them to commit additional crimes. this may have been exactly what happened here. there was a possible violation and they did everything they could to cover it up and protect secretary of state. it was not marked classified. but it is intelligence from satellite communications. i mean, you would have to be incompetent would you not, not to realize that is classified or

if not top secret. >> if i was a defense argument i wouldn't make that. if you don't have anything else you roll it out. i think she knew what was going on and in those e-mails. >> tom, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. migrants from hungary flooding in a train station in budda pest. they are trying to head west. and senior of foreign affairs correspondent is there with our story. to that train trauma and the newspapers here and around the world. a striking image of a three-year-old boy refugee found drowned on the beach in turkey. he and his mother and brother

were killed when the dinghy turned over. it is symbolic of the tragic flight of the migrant crisis here. and now what is going on in hungary. it is a struggle and chapter in the drama. a man with his wife and child laid down on the railroad tracks and demanded to be brought to the border to austria and germany. and in fact. the train had left and stopped short of that and nor a camp and set up. there were fights between the migrants and police and refused to get off of the train and a fight continues there. and there is a clash of politicians in europe as well. hungarian prime minister saying flatly today that migrants

should stay away from europe and blamed germany for too liberal of approach to a sylm saying they were3vv!lii+dgv the proble said all european countries needed to get together. >> there is meetings of central european leaders and prospects the image of the three-year-old boy lying face down in the is sand. >> it is a heart breaking image around the world. thank you. a would be car thief. what happens after he gets behind a wheel. it is like something out of a movie. a hot tip turned out to be a hoax, the manhunt for three

suspects accused of killing a police officer is expanding. we'll talk about what is next as the search goes into the third day.

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see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. >> donald trump meeting with the rnc and will hold a new's conference at the top of the hour. will he or won't he sign this. the republican loyalty pledge. and ed henry unearthed a long lost interview with hillary clinton where i asked her about something you don't want her to hear right now. and fantasy football owners, a certain qb to draft right now. we'll tol you -- tell you who. and a car thief was carjacked by the rightful owner. the would- be crook jumped in

the car with the engineer running and before he gets away, the owner runs out to stop him with the passenger door hanging on and the car spins around back wards and then the fight moves outside of the car and the owner held down the guy with help from other drivers until sheriff deputies arrived. >> a fox news alert. and three men still on the loose after killing a police officer. they are forced to regroup after making up lost ground. the tipster admits she lied in the spotting of the suspects. we are joined by phone now. the shooting took place on tuesday. how concerned are you that the

trail is cold. >> very concerned and 80 hours have elapsed and these three murdering savages left no actionable be to the prints or foot prints. they could have split in three directions or huddled together. they were so scars intel of who they are and what they look like. it is astonishing. they have brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and possibly certain and possibly friends. they are missing and gone. and someone somewhere knows something. what is needed out there is reward. you have to put the green in to this game and that prompts people to call. >> they are relying on tips and as you are aware, a woman in

custody for a false tip that started a false search. how damaging might it have been. >> extremely. i am very, very, very familiar with with it and hate when i see it happen. i saw it happen with the nypd when they tried to disrupt an investigation. individuals like her provide false information to the authorities. it disrupts the methodology and provides the murderers with real- time intel on where they should run to and where they should not. this allows them to potentially kill other innocent civilians and they will not hesitate to murder again. that's a fact. not only disrupt the police investigation, but allowed them to go to other locations where they will kill again.

it is terrifying. >> there is a press conference going on and they are revealing very little. they are keeping it close to the vest to avoid tipping off the suspects. but they did reveal that they have found the gun. how important? >> it could be extremely important if there is forepzic evidence. it is the first evidence for public consumption. that i a turning point relative to identifying the pedigree of three murders. that could be important. we pray it is. >> they are going over surveillance video and trying to find forensic evidence. and we don't know if they have leads from that. they are refusing to answer the questions. and understandably so. and so you think that possible there is more going on than we

know. unquestionably. two things happen. a operational engine in place and that is tactical canine dog and aircraft and law enforcement on foot and investigative engine humming along in the background that is efficient and that collects the bread crumbes and that is moving 24- 7365 with shrewd and smart investigative minds "÷e?wuvjkqbehind. it they keep that close to the vest. and this is three guys. this is exponential for one murder and this is scary stuff. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> and as we head in a big travel weekend. state troopers are cracking down on the texting behind the wheel.

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drivers are expected to hit the road in droves this labor day webbing. but more cars means more distracted drivers. some of them texting behind the wheel. state troopers in tennessee have come up with a unique way to crack down on the dangerous behavior. jonathan is live in atlanta with more on that. >> reporter: police are getting more creative in how they bust texting drivers. in some cities they're posing as construction workers or panhandlers to get a look inside your passing vehicle. in tennessee they're using a big rig. >> blue honda accord just passed on the right. >> reporter: tennessee state

troopers are hiding in plain sight as they try to recapture the attention of distracted drivers. >> the reason i stopped you is because you were texting while you were driving. >> folks are not looking for rigs like this that belong to us that are used for these enforcement initiatives. >> reporter: as a driver you might be uncomfortable with the idea of cops peering down into your car from a big rig. police insist it's all about saving lives. >> the national safety council cites distracted driving as the third leading cause of traffic fatalities just after alcohol use and speeding. >> this labor day weekend, if we could have no drunk drivers, no distracted drivers and people just slowed down a little bit, hundreds of lives would be saved. >> is there any legal reason why you were texting and driving? >> reporter: the day we rode along with the tennessee highway patrol state troopers issued 55 citations to distracted drivers. more than two-thirds were

texting. >> people seem to have the attitude everybody does it. this one time isn't going to matter. this one time isn't going to hurt. >> reporter: often it does. just like drinking and driving, police say it's going to take a combination of education and enforcement to get people to realize just how dangerous texting and driving can be. >> thank you, jonathan. keeping an eye on donald trump, who has been meeting with the republican national committee chairman in new york city about whether he will sign the pledge to support the eventual gop nominee and not run as an independent. just about every gop candidate has said, yeah, i'll sign the pledge and they've signed, or they will sign it. trump, very coy about it ever since he was asked during the presidential debate on fox news august 6th. maybe he's changed his mind and has signed the pledge. there you see the gathering

crowd and television cameras and microphones. we expect donald trump to be stepping forward to address everybody and sort of let us know if he's going to sign the pledge or not. betting money seems to be that he's changed his mind and that he will be signing the pledge. we'll wait and see. we'll be back in just a moment. listen up team, i brought in some protein to help rearrange the fridge and get us energized! i'm new ensure active high protein.

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thanks for joining us. >> i'm greg jarrett along with patti ann browne. stay tuned, "the real story with gretchen carlson" begins now. hi, everyone. we'll begin with a fox news alert. look at your screen. we're awaiting donald trump now. he is expected to hold a news conference any moment after he wraps up his meeting with the chair of the republican national committee. i'm gretchen carlson. this is "the real story" today. the rnc asking all of the presidential candidates to sign a loyalty pledge agreeing to

endorse the eventual republican nominee and not to run as an independent or a write-in candidate. this is america's election headquarters. and we're going to have team coverage on this today. look whom we have. bret baier. chris stirewalt, carl cameron live in new hampshire following the bush campaign and keeping it fair and balanced ed henry is in d.c. with the latest on hillary clinton. but, let's start now with bret baier. all right, bret. look at the crowds of people there. not only to see trump come out, but a bunch of reporters. i guess everyone wants to hear whether or not he's going to sign this pledge. what do you think? >> i don't think there is a lot of surprise now. i think there is a lot of reporting out there that he will sign the pledge. the rnc chair would not have gone to trump tower if this wasn't baked in the cake, i think, gretchen. the real story here is why he's getting to this point. he wasn't there august 6th, obviously, at our debate. the back story here is