republicans and the "i" word, impeachment. but not for president obama. this is "special report." good evening, welcome to washington, i'm brett baier, house republicans are going after the president's tax man. they have begun the process of trying to impeach irs commissioner john koskennen. correspondent doug mcelway is here to tell us why. >> the spark that innighted these proceedings was the decision last week by the department of justice, not to press charges against lois lerner. when that decision was made, the chairman of the house oversight

committee jason chaffetz tweeted that a clear message will not be tolerated. there may be another fact that are spurred the impeachment resolution. the imminent change in house leadership. paul ryan chairman of the house ways and means committee, also had jurisdiction over the irs. listen to his last words to koskennen. >> i don't believe you, this is incredible. >> i have a long career. that's the first time that anybody has said they don't believe me. >> i don't believe you. >> it may be with ryan expected to come in chairman chaffetz felt he had a green light to go with an impeachment resolution. he said the commissioner violated the public trust. he failed to comply with a congressly-issued subpoena. the public was consistently misled. ranking member elijah cummings lamb baslambasted the comment.

>> no evidence of any political targeting. the resolution occurred hours after kosskinen testified on the senate side about his impleltation of bipartisan relgss by the senate finance committee to repair the broken irs. in closing, chairman orrin hatch was much more accommodating to koskinen than those on the house side. >> i have a high opinion of you, and not i'll get in trouble with the house by saying this. but i have a high opinion of you. and basically think that you're trying to put things in order and i'm going to count on you doing that. >> the house oversight committee will have to debate the articles of impeachment and then vote-team peach him. now whether ryan is the expected new speaker wants this on his plate right out of the gate. we'll find out and just moments

ago the irs told us that it vigorously disputes the allegations and said that it has fully cooperated with all of the investigations. >> more on this with the panel. the white house is calling a potential deal can congress on the budget and the debt limit a break in the cycle of crisis-driven decision-making. a house vote on the proposal is slated for tomorrow. the same day republicans will try to pick a replacement for speaker john boehner as doug mentioned, expected to be congressman paul ryan. chief congressional correspondent mike emmanuel has the latest from capitol hill tonight. >> i want to do my best to clean the barn. >> retiring speaker john boehner negotiated a bipartisan deal with his congressional counterparts and the white house to help his successor, expected to be congressman paul ryan. start with an immediate crisis on his hands. the budget agreement would be for two years to raise the debt ceiling through march 2017. it would adjust spending caps for two years by $80 billion. equally divide between defense and domestic spending.

it would prevent a spike in medicare b premiums for millions of seniors and offers entitledment reforms. >> the agreement isn't perfect. but the alternative was a clean debt ceiling increase without any additional support for our troops and without any entitlement reforms. so this is a good deal for our troops, for our taxpayers, and for the american people. >> also today, vice president joe biden endorsed the agreement. >> you know what put together is a good deal no one got anything they wanted. but it will last for two years and it will prevent us from lumping from crisis to crisis. >> some conservatives criticized another last-minute complex deadline deal. >> this thing must have taken weeks, probably months to negotiate and it's dropped on us in less than 48 hours of having to vote for it. >> i will not be voting for it, because it my view it's financially i irresponsible. >> lawmaker in agricultural

states are upset about a cut in the federal crop insurance program. >> if we get rid of crop insurance, if the long-term end result of this means you have 100 people farm the entire united states. the average guy won't be able to do it. >> the expected next speaker of the house promised to change the way the agreement was shared with rank-and-file members. >> i'm reserving judgment on the agreement, i want to see what it looks like on paper. but about the process i can say this -- i think this process stinks. and under new management we're not going to do the people's business this way. >> the first test comes tomorrow in the house with debate and a vote. nobody sounds entirely happy which suggests it's a compromise. brett? >> mike emmanuel live on the hill. for the second time in a week, there are new indications president obama may be reversing course on his stated goal of getting u.s. troops out of iraq and keeping u.s. troops out of syria. the apparent shift comes days after the first known american combat fatality in the war

against isis. national security correspondent jennifer griffin has our story tonight from the pentagon. >> in a move that will put u.s. ground troops closer to combat in iraq and syria, the president is weighing recommendations from the pentagon to ramp up military strategy against isis. >> we expect to intensify our air campaign. including with additional u.s. and coalition aircraft. to target isil with a higher and heavier rate of strikes. >> there will be more u.s. special operations raids like the hostage rescue last week involving delta force operators embedded with kurdish fighters, which left an american soldier dead. >> he was killed in combat. that was the intent, obviously. he was accompanying those forces. >> the white house said today, the president is not authorizing large-scale ground forces like he did in afghanistan. the new chairman of the joint chiefs said he would recommend embedding u.s. troops with the iraqis. >> after talking to the commanders on the ground. i believe we'll have an opportunity to reinforce iraqi

success in the days ahead. we've developed a variety of options to do that. >> the hearing got testy when senator john mccain asked why there still aren't plans for a no-fly zone in syria. >> it is not a new issue. >> it seems to me you should have a position on it. >> we do not have a concept of operations for a no fly zone at this time. >> after all these years, we don't have a concept of operations? >> that we're prepared to recommend. >> because the white house does not want to confront russia in the skies over syria. which led to this admission from the president's top military adviser. >> i think the balance of forces right now are in assad's advantage. >> what you've done, gentlemen, along with the president, is you've turned syria over to russia and iran, this is a half-assed strategy at best. >> a u.s. navy guided missen destroyer, the "uss lassen" sailed within 12 nautical miles of the artificial sprattly islands in the south china sea.

eliciting an angry response from china. >> i advise the united states not to make a fool out of themselves. >> an irritated mccain pressed the defense secretary to confirm the u.s. naval operation. >> i don't like the idea of talking about our military operations, but what you read in the newspaper is accurate. >> i don't think that -- that the senator asked you, when and how, he just asked you whether you could confirm it or not. >> i can. >> in another dramatic shift, the u.s. invited iran to join peace talks on the future of syria. a shift in strategy as secretary of state john kerry begins talks to end the war in syria in vienna later this week. brett? >> jennifer griffin live in the pentagon. thank you. up next, the doctor is in, the donald is out as front-runner at the top of at least one national poll. first, here's some of our fox affiliates around the country are covering. fox 57 in columbia, south carolina, the sheriff says a decision may come together on

the deputy who flipped a female student and dragged her across a classroom. officials say the student refused the deputy's order to leave the class for being disruptive. the sheriff says another video shows the student hitting the deputy. the video says it has opened a civil rights investigation. fox 2 in st. louis where an epa dplinor says the agency will come up with a plan to insure an underground landfill fire does not reach a buried cache of cold war nuclear waste. officials say there's no immediate danger since the fire is still 1,000 feet if the waste. this is a live look at kansas city, the big story there tonight, for fox 4, our affiliate, game one of the world series tonight between the kansas city royals and the new york mets. you can see it on fox broadcast, the big channel, with the first pitch a little after 8:00 p.m. eastern. that's tonight's live look outside the beltway from "special report." we'll be right back.

another major boost tonight for ben carson, he is now leading over donald trump in a national poll. now it is one poll, and trump leads in others. but this comes after the retired surgeon bested the billionaire in a series of surveys in iowa. and it sets up a possible confrontation in tomorrow's third gop presidential debate. chief political correspondent carl cameron is in boulder, colorado tonight. >> donald trump is no longer the national front-runner. ben carson has overtaken him, building on his momentum out of iowa. the latest cbs/"new york times" poll shows carson up to 26% and trump second with 22. marco rubio, jeb bush and carly fiorina lead the single digits in a testy battle. trump who said he would drop out of the race if he took a dive in the polls, told msnbc he was

must mystified. >> i was number one in iowa from the beginning. i'm a little bit surprised. >> the billionaire renewed his attack on the soft-spoken former physician. >> i don't get it to be honest with you. it's -- you know you look at different things having to do with ben and there's a lot of contradiction. and a lot of questions. you know like ben was, he was pro abortion not so long ago, as everybody has told me. >> trump himself used to be pro choice and even supported late-term abortion procedures and in numerous other issues remains at odds with the gop in substance and tone. overshadowed and irked by front-running outsiders, the bush campaign labels rubio the opponent. compared to bush's record as a former two-term governor of florida. >> that stands in stark contrast to others in the field, including senator rubio, who are short on accomplishment. reality is we need someone a

proven record on fixing things. >> tonight i'm paying attention to the noise, i'm focused on a campaign that's a serious campaign. this election is a generational choice for our country. what nation we're going to be in the 21st century. >> bush today laid out his plans to save social security and medicare entitlements by means testing and adjusting eligibility ages writing quote, if we don't have an honest conversation about what it will take to protect medicare and social security, we fail seniors and we will fail the next generation of americans. bush was talking about policy while his campaign manager was going after rubio. in advance of the third gop debate tomorrow here in boulder, colorado. all the candidates say they want to talk about issues, brett. but for the most part, they're either trading insults or elbowing for position in the horse race polls. >> carl cameron live in boulder, thanks. the first democratic poll since the benghazi hearing and joe biden's decision not to run as hillary clinton with a commanding lead in iowa. very commanding. but chief white house correspondent ed henry reports

not everything is going perfectly for clinton. >> pressure is building on hillary clinton to apologize after declaring the va scandal in which veterans died waiting for care was overblown. >> i wonder what secretary cloy would ha clinton would have to say to the families of those who died. that it's a partisan issue? i don't think so. >> the democratic front-runner told msnbc the problem was not as widespread as claimed and blamed republicans for distorting the fact that vns care is good. >> nobody would believe that from the coverage you see and the constant berating of the va that comes from republicans in part of pursuing the ideological agenda. >> clinton has not apologized. though on saturday night. she seems to have clarified. >> for our veterans who served our nation with honor and collage and deserve the benefits they've earned without delays and abuses. >> clinton is much kaing flack

from the left for suggesting in the recent debate, her chief rival, bernie sanders, was being sexist for saying she should stop shouting about gun control. msnbc anchor mika brzezinski said clinton's attack on sanders sounded like weak scripted lines from the comedy series veep. >> i know sexism. hillary clinton knows better, she should know better than to let her staff make her do that. that was pathetic. >> sanders pounced on clinton by saying that the only reason she and her husband supported the marriage act. >> it wasn't true. >> sanders got trouble from a powerful democrat, nancy pelosi. >> bernie sanders was my colleague in the house, we voted along, against doma. against all of those things that people were subjecting to scrutiny now. he is fabulous and he is is a

very important tonic for the country. >> pelosi casually added sander. she may be a warning shot or with a new monmouth university poll showing clinton has a 41-point lead in iowa, maybe a sign of democratic leaders trying to build up a nomination fight when we're actually edging toward a clinton coronation. brett? >> ed, thank you. still ahead, are police officers backing off because they don't want to be stars on youtube? first, how much does president obama really care about the persecution of christians?

many republicans and others have raised questions about how committed president obama is, to one of the core beliefs that led

to the founding of this country. religious freedom. judging by his administration's action, and inaction. chief legal correspondent janet bream is here to look at how the state department is or is not standing up for the right to worship. >> on the same day that the syrian observatory for rights, that isis chained people to ancient ruins in palmyra and blew them up. house republicans are asking what people are doing to protect religious minorities. the focus was on isis and which allied groups working with it are specifically targeting christians for extermination in the middle east. republican say time is of the essence and the u.s. should be doing more to help those in immediate danger. >> if people are targeted for extermination, targeted for genocide, we should make them a priority to offer the safe haven

of the united states. which we are so proud of. that we have in the shining light and the refugee to the world. >> in recent years, the state department has identified combatting climate change and fighting for lgbt rights around the globe as top priorities. well today, members questioned whether there's also a real commitment to fight for religious freedom. the administration has taken heat for leaving a key position, vacant for years. rabbi david saberstein holds the title and assures lawmakers that the state department takes the global issue seriously. >> it is very hard to get traction and to change long-ingrained practices and policies. >> would you. >> that these countries have. >> would you say -- >> that we are doing extraordinary things here i am prepared to try to defend to you. >> there were heated moments regarding pastor saed abidini, a

pastor being held in iran because of his faith and why the administration didn't insist that he be freed in conjunction with the iran nuclear deal. saperstein said negotiations were ongoing at every part of the talks. rescuers are trying to reach hard-hit areas of the earth quake-hit areas of pakistan and afghanistan. the death toll is approaching 350 and is expected to go higher. the director of the c.i.a. says that the hack of his personal email account shows everyone is vulnerable on the internet. john brennan told an audience in washington today, he was upset by the publication of sensitive data, including his contact list, and his wife's social security number. >> i was certainly outraged by it. i certainly was concerned about

what people might try to do with that information. >> a self-described high school student, unhappy with u.s. foreign policy, has claimed responsibility. fort we will see a man about a horse. and his efforts to supposedly save them, next in the grapevine. need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over one hundred of the web's leading job boards with a single click. then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. and now you can use zip recruiter for free. go to ziprecruiter.com.

jtsds js thorre o >> uncle sam selling the very animals he was supposed to protect from slaughter. a rancher bought 2,000 horses from the federal government for $so each. the inspector general says davis sold them for a profit to buyers in mexico. to be slaughtered. despite agreeing not to do exactly that. one animal advocate calls it business as usual for the bureau of land management. they fervently declare and defend they have a policy or protocol. when you bring things to the public that prove they do not follow said policy protocol, they simply say, whoops, it did occur. but we've done nothing wrong. blm says it has taken steps to prevent a similar incident. and will no longer deal with davis. the u.s. attorney's office

declined to proceed with any civil or criminal charges. the u.s. military has spent about $470 million supporting afghan local police units. with another $420 million expected to be spent through 2018. but in the inspector general questions whether it's money being well spent. quote supplies ordered for the alp are often diverted, delayed, of inferior quality or heavily pill ferred. politics have come into play, quote some alp personnel have been used inappropriately as body guarding for afghan government officials. the i.g. calls for the oversight of u.s. funds to be improved and a plan for the future transmission, sustainment and dissolution of the police units. finally, arkansas's legalized marijuana push may be undone in part by poor grammar. the state's attorney general rejected a ballot proposal to legalize marijuana, citing numerous issues including sloppy

drafting. quote amending the arkansas constitution is a serious matter that merits greater attention to detail than evidenced by the proposal, which contains several errors of spelling and syntax that tend to obscure its meaning. i urge you to read the proposal to locate and correct such errors. president obama is calling for smarter policing and more common sense sentencing as part of his effort to improve the justice system. the president spoke to police chiefs in chicago today. during a time when officers are facing a difficult 21st century challenge. correspondent kevin corke explains from the white house. >> already under pressure to protect the public, and because of cell phone video, increasingly under intense scrutiny. that's what president obama said today about and to the largest gathering of law enforcement leaders in the country. lauding their service and sacrifice. >> thank you. >> the president using the chicago gathering to announce plans for criminal justice

reform. amid the growing gulf between some communities and police. >> we've got to resist the false trap. that says either there should be no accountability for police, or that every police officer is suspect no matter what they do. neither of those things can be right. >> the president says he wants the criminal justice system to be smarter. more effective. fairer and include so-called common-sense gun safety reforms. specifically the white house wants to see changes in sentencing guidelines. and to rethink the approach to handling nonviolent offenders. all while seeking brought bipartisan support. the call for reform comes amid a rift within the administration over comments made by fbi director james comey, who has twice in recent days said the recent uptick in crime in some cities is likely the result of a ferguson effect. where law enforcement officers act more restrained over fear of being recorded on video. >> i spoke to officers in one

big city. at a precinct house who described being surrounded by young people with mobile phones, video cameras rolling as they step out of the car, taunting them. asking them what they want and why they're there. they described a feeling of being under siege. >> the evidence that we've seen so far doesn't support the contention that law enforcement officials are somehow shirking their responsibility. >> comey's remarks come as the white house attempts to end decades long policies of mass incarceration. the administration says federal prison populations declined in 2014 for the first time since 1980. republicans say now's the time for change. >> the president's support for the idea of criminal justice reform, it seems like the time is right. >> cornyn and fellow senator from the state of new jersey, cory booker are part of a bipartisan group seeking change and frankly, brett, dollars and cents appear to be at the heart of many of those calls, 2.2 million people are behind bars in american jails this year at

an annual cost of $80 billion, brett. >> kevin corke live on the north lawn. stocks were down, the dow fell 42, the s&p 500 and the nasdaq both lost about five points. republicans go after the president's tax man. and pursue a budget deal with the president. we'll talk about both things with the panel, when we come back.

i don't believe you. this is incredible. >> i have a long career, that's the first time anybody has ever said they do not believe me. >> i don't believe you. >> that's fine, we can have a disagreement. i'm willing to stand on our record. i'm willing to remind you it was not buried in 27 pages. most of that 27 pages is exhibits, when asked about the cuss toefdian -- which we knew for one day. >> being forthcoming is to say -- you know what, investigators, congress who is investigating -- >> will you let him answer a question? >> i didn't ask him a question.

>> that was a bit heated back in june of last year. and john koskinen now if the spotlight again. the irs commissioner facing impeachment proceedings, in the house of representatives. now this comes after this week, where the department of justice decided not to go after criminally, lois lerner, you remember all of the back-and-forth that the bureaucrat, and what she did or did not do. here's the statement by jason chaffetz, commissioner koskinen violated the public trust. he failed to comply with congressionally-ished subpoena. documents were destroyed on his watch. impeachment is the appropriate tool to restore confidence in the irs and protect the interests of congress. democrat elijah cummings says just as in the benghazi and planned parenthood investigation, it appears the facts don't matter to republicans. this ridiculous resolution will demonstrate nothing, but the republican obsession with diving into investigative rabbit holes

that waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars while having absolutely no positive impact on a single american. calling this resolution a zunt or a joke would be insulting to stunts and jokes. the irs late tonight with a statement -- the irs vigorously disputes the allegations in the resolution. we have fully cooperated with all the investigations. with that, we'll start there. let's bring in our panel. syndicated columnist george will. mara liasson and sind caugsyndid columnist charles krauthammer. >> therefore the to buttress the separation of powers they had to give this power to the legislative branch. no one who has loomed at the timeline can believe that the irs has been cooperative. and no one who has looked at what we will smilingly call the justice department investigation conducted by an obama contributor, believes that the justice department was seriously

interested in the misbehavior that the obama administration has said was outrageous, but there's not a smidgen of evidence of wrongdoing. nothing happened and the people who caused it to happen were renegade people in cincinnati. now, mr. cummings thinks there's nothing to look into here. there are three reasons for doing this. mr. koskinen is not going to be convicted in the senate because two-thirds of the senate are not going to vote to remove him. but by having an impeachment hearing it will test of power of the media to continue ignoring the story. it will reassure republican voters that electing a republican congress has some consequences. and it will alert the irs that there are costs in embarrassment at least, to when they do what they manifestly did. >> here's what some people who oppose this move would say. you know it's not going to get through. you know the end result. why do this, despite what george

says, why go forward? >> well, those are questions are being raised not, by republicans, not just by democrats, but by republicans. if you believe that you should prove to republicans as george just said, the base of your party, that you were elected to do things like this hold the irs' feet to the fire, then this is a worthwhile exercise. if you think that the job of the republican party is to look beyond its base, especially in an upcoming election year, to show that it can act on things that the broad majority of americans care about, then maybe this is a rabbit hole. >> i mean that same argument could be made about repealing obamacare. >> sure. >> thaw know it's going to get vetoed. >> this not going to end well. republicans have demonstrated, if they've demonstrated anything, republicans in the congress have shown they have no ability to conduct successful investigations of this administration. and everything they have touched has failed or back-fired. even benghazi, where they had

prima facie evidence of new data showing that hillary clinton had said to the egyptian ambassador, a day after the incident, that had nothing to do with the video and spent the next week or two telling that to the country and to the father of one of those who fell. the most damning evidence i can imagine, it's something you would have started a hearing with and would have had tremendous impact and they didn't succeed. they ended up, the image is the way it's been received, she had a triumph. if you can't score on that you're not going to score on this. george admits it's not going to pass through the senate. this is a waste of energy. if the intent is as chaffetz says to restore confidence in the irs, you know how you do that? you win the white house, you appoint a new irs commissioner and then you get an uncompromised doj to go in and to prosecute lois lerner. >> final word? >> well the irs is the most intrusive and potentially

punitive and by now objectively politicized institution of government. and this is the only way at this point it can be exposed and punished and they can proceed. >> house speaker john boehner outgoing in the president of the united states today. >> having listened to our members and listened to the american people, we have a budget agreement. the agreement isn't perfect by any means, but the alternative was a clean debt ceiling increase without any additional supporter for our troops and without any entitlement reforms. >> it's an actual bipartisan compromise, which hasn't been happening a lot in washington lately. locked in two years of funding for budgets that finally free us from this cycle of shut-down threats. >> here's the budget deal, the bullet points. raises the debt ceiling through march of 2016. sets a budget parameter for the next two years. it offers some long-term entitlement reforms to the social security disability insurance program. ssdi. it would prevent a spike in

medicare b premiums for millions of seniors, these are the positives and it would adjust spend caps by $80 billion equally divided between defense and domestic spending. mara, it seems like this is a fast-track in the house. but we're hearing late tonight that rand paul says he's going to filibuster on the floor. i'm sure he'll be joined by others like ted cruz. >> the republicans running for president, probably not going to vote for this and they certainly have a chance, especially rand paul, whose stock has been dropping to get back in the limelight. i think this will pass eventually. i think this is john boehner's gift to paul ryan. he's saying look i'm going to take this off the table for you. paul ryan gets to save the process by which it arrived at stinks and he has the best of both worlds, his fingerprints aren't on it. but once again, you know, republicans and democrats made a deal. and that's the only way this thing was pushed forward. >> john boehner said he was cleaning the barn. is how he put it here's paul ryan today about this plows.

process. >> i think this process stinks. this is not the way to do the people's business. and under new management, we're not going to do the people's business this way. we're up against the deadline, that's unfortunate. but going forward, we can't do the people's business. as a conference, we should have been meeting months ago to discuss these things, that have a unified strategy going forward. >> so george, the process stinks but we're going forward with it right now. >> the best thing about the deal is it is presumably the last of its kind. we shall see for a while. because the congress knows that if it's going to restore its power and our constitutional architecture, it has to restore the power of the purse. the only way you do that is by having regular separate appropriation bills. by which you can punish the executive branch and put a leash on it without shutting down the government. which means the whole process has to be built from scratch. and the house is where it has to start. and it has to start with the new

speaker. >> i agree. it can't start now. boehner is falling on grenade. i think he's doing a good thing for the country. there are marginal issues here. the best part of the deal is slightly increasing defense spending. the best of all is that ryan is going to have a clean slate to do big things, tax reform, entitlement reform and restoration of regular order. that's his job for 2016. >> well in congress the house approved the reauthorization of the export/import bank, it was 313 to 118. 186 democrats voted for it along with 127 republicans. the 127 republicans would make up what's called the majority of the majority. the old hastert rule for legislation. that paul ryan said he would return to if he becomes speaker. the xm bank going through with reauthorization. next up, is president obama about to increase american involvement in the fight against isis? and put boots on the ground in syria?

are we going to fight with people who want to take us down or are we going to

provide them military help? >> our train and equip program. >> the answer is no. >> the answer is no. >> is supportive of people. >> so let me just -- >> well, there is a lot of questions about that action in syria. well defense secretary said on capitol hill caught people's ears are we won't hold back in supporting partners in attacks against isil or conducting such actions directly whether direct on the ground. in iraq or syria. are they getting more aggressive. we're back with the panel. charles, front page story about this. we saw the raid in iraq. is this an administration that has decided to change its policy? >> no. it's not changed anything. the policy is.

presidency. no involvement in the ground, yes, a commando raid here and there. that's been happening all a the time and this idea of increasing the air strikes. why haven't we increased them up to now? there is no strategy in syria. there is none in iraq. the idea is to stay out of trouble and to get it to the next president: this administration is so weak that it's in the same hearing. asked about a deliberate step we took in the south china sea to send a destroyer within 12 miles of illegal chinese island. and the secretary refuses to officially say if happened. >> let's listen to that real quick. we have that sound bite about china. >> the news reports all day are about a u.s. destroyer naming the destroyer, going inside the 12-mile zone. around theist these islands. why would you not confirm or

deny that that happened? >> well, i'm going to not be coy with you. i don't like in general the idea of talking about our military operations, but what you read in the newspaper is accurate, and but i don't want to say more than that and i don't want to say when. >> well, and how we operate anywhere in the world. >> sorry to step on your bunch -- punch line there the point of doing this is to announce to the world that we don't recognize chinese sovereignty here. you don't then deny or refuse to acknowledge that it happened. diplomacy: can't do it. it's simply incomprehensible. >> i think he acknowledged it and read in the newspaper is correct. that's acknowledging it happened. he didn't want to go further. >> why shouldn't he go further. >> the chinese know exactly what we did. >> we are telling the world,

of course the chinese know. but we are saying we are going to not recognize and a we are going to defy the chinese claims and that they need reassurance. it's all about psychological reassurance. if the secretary won't give it, what are other countries in the region to think about that? >> well, i think the fact that we did it sends a message. and the countries that want to get that message know what's going on there. >> george? >> this is a reminder of why events 5,000 miles apart in the middle east and in south china sea indicates there is a consensus in this town of discord that we need a bigger navy. half the world's sea tonnage passes through the south china sea is and related straits. and i know that on a number of our officers admiral harry harris is the head of the pacific command has been itching to do this because this is what our global navy is the only force in the world that can guarantee freedom of the seas. someone on fox news today

suggested that perhaps it's not clear that the president approved this. this is a presidential level decision. and we ought to give him some credit because this is not a weakness. this is a real challenge. >> is this administration getting more aggressive when it comes to foreign policy actions? is this about president obama's thinking about his legacy. gotten through to the white house. >> i don't know exactly what motivated it. i can tell you if you look at all these examples it adds up to more aggressive action. maybe not as aggressive as his critics wanted. if ash carter says straight out we are going to do more on the ground directly in iraq against isil or syria. in the south china sea. i mean, it sounds like president obama wanted to be the president who left iraq but he doesn't want to be the president who left iraq in a mess. >> the big news today is that we are now going to invite iran into the negotiations on the future of syria.

we are effectively handed over to russia and to iran and we are out of the game. that's our real strategy. >> that is it for the panel. stay tuned to see something one late night show found out about one presidential candid

>> finally tonight you have seen bernie sanders hand signatures. one noticed he had another trademark manrism. mannerism.

[ laughter ] >> decision that he made. >> why are you going up in these numbers in iowa and new hampshire. [ laughter ] >> politically. >> some people who are watching, senator talk about all those things ♪ [ laughter ] >> who knew? stamps or something. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight, that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid. greta goes "on the record" right now. >> it's wednesday october 28th. while you were sleeping, literally the royals and mets making history with the longest opening game since the world series began. we are going to show you how it

ended. >> american airlines pilot rushed off of the plane and into the hospital after being hit with a laser mid flight. the republican president for candidate combeering up for the debate this time focused on the economy. what can we expect from them tonight and what can we expect from donald trump who has a new top target? ♪ >> good morning to you. you are watching "fox & friends first" on this wednesday morning. a long night for a lot of folks out there. i am heather childers. >> unfortunately, new yorkers you can't always get what you want like the song says. there are plenty more chances. >> thank you for starting your morning with us. let's start with the world series. game one stretching into the we hours of the morning. >> if you missed the end of the game. you are not alone. the royals finally beating the

mets in the 14th inning close to 1:po in the morning. >> here comes escobar. the royals win game one. the winner in the 14th inning. >> kansas city 5-4 victory the longest ever world series clocking in at 5 hours 9 minutes. >> social media exploding in the 4th inning when a technical glitch caused a four-minute delay. some suggesting cart griswold was responsible for that de clay. others say the yankees were pulling the power plugs from the movie "airplane." >> ready for round 3. the republican president for candidate are expecting to face off for another debate the topic the economy. what can we expect