this is a fox news alert in washington. russian war planes are testing u.s. patience in a not so peaceful way in the baltic. and experts looking at recent actions say vladimir putin is showing how little he almosts for fears the u.s. and president obama. this is american and russian diplomats participating in syrian peace talks. in geneva. national security correspondent jennifer griffin tells us what happened and the reagency from the penn. >> this is what it looks and feel like to have a russian jet because u.s. navy warship at

close range. the war plaegs were configurated in attack profile. not once but twice this week in the baltic sea. the video and these photos taken by sailors on board the uss donald cook shows how close the russian jets came. >> look at the left one. he is on the deck. on the deck. below the bridgeway. >> on monday, two conducted 20 passes in a series of provocative maneuvers at an altitude of 100 feet. 1,000 yards from the destroyer and the polish helicopter was taking off from the flight deck. a day later on i am a 12th, it circled seven time taking close up photos of the american warship. >> coming in low. >> minutes later, two russian fighter bombers conducted 11 very low passes. in one case, coming within 30

feet of the shift. the u.s. military did not respond. two form he defense secretaries recently described to fox news how russian president vladimir putin thinks and the danger of not responding to russian prof indications. >> he is somebody that, if you don't deal with him from strength, he will try to take advantage of you. that's the way he operates. >> he is very opportunistic. and i think if resisted will stop. >> two years ago, a russian war plane made 12 close passes in 90 minutes over the uss donald cook when she was in the black sea. in january a russian jet budged an american spy plane. in november, they shot down the russian plane when i flew too close. the russian war planes have not breached the air space since. >> china is protesting the

recent statement criticizing the island building activities in the south china sea. yesterday we showed you satellite images of chinese fighter jets. they say if the land grab goes up checked, they will dominate for an estimated $5 trillion in cargo and natural resources each year. iran's nuclear program is progressing faster than ever despite that president obama's legacy deal. that is according to a spokesman for iran's atomic energy foundation. he said nuclear efforts are proceeding at a quicker pace in more locations and with greater seriousness. macedonian police used tear gas and stun grenades and rubber bullets on the other side of the fence, separating a refugee tent city. the greek police did not intervene. no injuries were reported. syrian, iraqi and afghan

refugees have ignored repeated calls from greek authorities to relocate to organized camps. back in this country it took a long time. lawmakers are getting a look at newly released documents relating to the fast and furious gun trafficking scandal. >> we will not rest until every single person responsible for all of us, no matter where they are, are put to justice. >> almost five years later, congress is still trying to keep that promise. pouring over some 20,000 newly obtained records related to operation fast and furious. >> the gugs we saw will begin turning up in the united states and mexico and we did nothing. >> it appears to be a deliberate attempt by some of the justice department to keep secret exactly what happened and how many were killed in the gun

running scandal. in april 2011, a junior justice official wrote, we'll provide only some documents and withhold a substantial number from congress. two weeks ago, others suggest not saying how many. >> we either lied or were grossly incompetent. >> my hope would be we can get beyond that kind of inaction. despite the executive privilege claim by president obama. >> i did not authorize it. >> the white house and justice officials denied responsibility for the operation even while fighting to keep their knowledge and handling of it private. it was ruled that executive privilege did not apply.

>> let's talk more with the government reform committee. >> thanks for having me. >> first an overview of what you're seeing with these new documents. >> we had to pry these out of the administration. it was senator grassley who made the first inquiry. it was february 20 plef the department of justice said there was no gun walking. and they didn't let these guns out of their view. that was a complete and total lie. so we had to go to court. now the court has ruled mostly in our favor and the department of justice has had to cough up 20,000 new documents. >> let's look at these e-mails. one from april 1st, 2011. the senior justice department official tells the head of legislative affairs, we'll provide only some and withhold a substantial number of documents.

of all the people who understand this. it is not a suggestion or a qufl it is a compulsion to provide all the documents in your possession. here in writing they're demonstrating that they are not complying with the lawful they are breaking the law by telling us that they're only going to provide a couple documents. >> october 2011. a senior aide to the attorney general mocks the top department official for the idea of complying with the committee request. he states, if the answer is, we owe it to chairman issa at the time to give it to him first, that's obviously ridiculous. >> it is not about darrell issa. if you have a duly issued scene that, a you must comply with it. what is stunning is the attorney general, eric holder himself writes back and says i agree. so there was a concerted effort to make sure that the congress never saw the light of day on these documents. they still owe us more. we're appealing the ruling.

we think we need 100% of the documents on get to 100% of the truth. >> the attorney general -- >> they still want the dolts. i think it is wearing itself out that there was a very concerted effort from eric holder himself to make sure congress did not get truth. >> here's what i hear when i travel the country. it really makes them mad. what will happen as a result of all these investigations? fast and furious. the irs. benghazi. they like hearing about the details. but they really want to hear what's going to happen as a result of these investigations. >> a lot of people who come before my committee. i can shed height on it.

i want to do something i haven't done. we should impeach the irs commissioner. they destroyed 24,000 documents that were in their possession. there needs to be a consequence. the next administration will have the guts to go back and prosecute these people. they're clearly breaking the law. >> so will this administration see anything as a result of what you're finding out? >> i hope so. we got the courts to agree. that's why they had to provide these documents. we'll provide that truth. there may be some other consequences down the line. you have to have an administration with integrity. that's why it is time for another election. >> thank you. this is a fox news alert. moments ago president obama met with his national security council to talk about the terror threat posed by isis.

kevin corke is at the white house. >> reporter: good evening. it is very interesting listening to the president. he said that the cause for isis is lost. he said they will continual to hunt and eliminate isis leaders in the months and weeks ahead. he went on to say that he felt like they are continue to shrink and they're on the defensive while the coalition let by the americans continues to be on the offensive. he gets a high level briefing. then he come out to reassure the american people that the battle against isis is progressing. call it nuanced messaging. from the oval office to the pentagon to the national counter terrorism center. president obama using each to burnish a narrative that his administration is focused on the fight against isis.

and the the "wall street journal" reports, they have drawn up plans to provide more powerful weapons to syria if a thread bare six-week cease fire on the country unravels. >> with nine months left, president obama decides to go to the cia to talk about isis. this should have happened five years ago. >> five years ago because at that point they hadn't fully committed to propping up the weakened assad regime. and the chaos that ensued has allowed isis to flourish. according to his opponents, weakened president obama. >> the russians and the iranians don't fear him. assad laughs at him. and the people we're trying to arm will have an inferior position on the battlefield. it will take a new president with a new strategy to get syria rye. >> the administration point to the evolving strategy.

>> because of their effective integration with our military, they've been able to undertake a set of operations that have significantly impaired isil's ability to finance their operations. >> like operation tidal wave two. the president still speaking at this hour. we'll keep an eye on it for you. as for the so-called plan b, the administration officials say we're looking on de-escalating the situation and we don't want to entertain hypotheticals. i should point out something very interesting we heard from our colleague. katherine harris. she had a conversation with the form he army chief of staff and he told her that it would probably take about 50,000 ground troops to defeat isis.

led by the u.s. not made up solely of u.s. forces. >> kevin, thanks. more on all this. isis is death threats against muslims who it sees as overt crusaders. including the hillary clinton aid, huma an deen. first some of our fox affiliates around the countries. in greenville, south carolina. the judge delays the trial for the man accused of killing nine people at an african-american church last year. the lawyers say they need more time to prepare. fox 29 in philadelphia. one of the cities in which verizon workers walked off the job today. the strike affects abo, they sa verizon wants to freeze pensions, make layoffs easier

and rely more on contract workers. verizon said it needs to manage costs. and a live look at dallas from fox 4. the big story. two years in prison for the affluenza teen. a judge has ordered him to serve four consecutive sentences of 180 days for the four people he killed. he was initially given only probation based on the argument that his affluent upbringing made him unable to distinguish between right and wrong. he violated probation when he went to mexico last year. that's the live look outside the beltway. hey, need fast heartburn relief? try cool mint zantac. it releases a cooling sensation

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with the new york primary less than a week away, donald trump has a big enough lead in the polls and he is spending today in pennsylvania. right now the republican front-runner is taping a town hall event in pittsburgh for the sean "hannity" show and he will hold a rally at the top of the hour. but trump continues to rail against the gop selection process. a selection ted cruz continues to exploit. here's senior corn john robinson.

>> ted cruz is shopping for votes in the strong hold of pennsylvania today. trump is complaints about the delegation selection process saying the front-runner is running scared. >> donald is panicking. he is scared. he loves to call people a loser. donald wakes up at night in cold sweats, that people will call him the losin' donald. >> the strategy is not just to denial trump the majority of delegates before the end of the primary. he is actively courting delegates who would become unbound after a first convention vote to make sure trump can't cobble together 1237 delegates. trump's strategy, if he is denied the nomination by complaining long and loud the delegation selection process is rigged against him. >> the system is not a good system. we can figure it out but it is stacked against us. >> trump lashed out against fumble national committee saying

it should be ashamed for allowing this crap to happen. reince priebus has had enough. tweeting nomination process known for a year and beyond. it is the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. complaints now? give us all a break. and it turned more serious when he started getting death threats when his phone number was published at the net. without any evidence, he pointed fingers at trump supporters. >> donald needs to understand. he is not michael corleony. >> and john kasich is campaigning in maryland where a new monmouth poll shows him 8 points ahead of cruz. solidly in second place. >> somebody just did an independent analysis of the electoral college. both trump and cruz get smoked and i win again. we have to keep going. i think when we get to the

convention people will want to know that. >> and trump today made good on his promise that he was hiring rick wily who oversaw scott walker's failed presidential bid to be hit political director. he knows the ins and outs of the party system. that's something the trump campaign could really use. >> we have new information with the u.s. supreme court case challenging the obama contraception mandate. chief legal correspondent shannon bream is here. >> there are brand new legal filings by the little sisters of the court case. it was brought by a group of organizations that do not want any role in providing contra

septemb septemberives. they argued the justices took unusual step of asking the parties to brief an additional issue. to specifically outline how employees of the organization could get full contraceptive access without them having to be involved in any way. they argued the sisters could be directly involved and leave them out of the process. >> conflict here is a fake made of conflict. but it is a fake invented conflict. when it insists on punishing their ministry unless they participate, the government is creating problems. >> but they are saying it would lead to years of negotiation during which tens of thousands of women would likely continue

to be denied coverage to which they are legally entitled. it is possible it will wait until a ninth justice is seated. for now it would leave the lower court ruling against thrill sisters in place and the nuns facing a $70 million penalty. the decision is due late june. thank you. an inspector general's report the says two buildings were emitting level of electrical current that could be deadly. they claim electrical styled equipment. the inspector gentle wants it fixed. they insist the high colonel is limited. >> millions in tank upgrades the army doesn't need or want.

$40 million for border states. the pig book identifies a total of $5 billion in ear marks. that's up 21% from last 84. a great day in the market today. all three majors closed at highs for the year. the dow jumped 187 today. the s&p rose 21. hillary clinton and bernie sanders fight over new york.

intelligence agencies are considering an elimination of

the lowest category of classified information. that level is now call confidential. the top official tells the associated press it could simplify the system used to guard intelligence and prevent unnecessary secrecy. the proposal would have no impact on the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. both democrats competing for delegates in next week's primary are touting their new york roots. hillary clinton was a u.s. senator recommending the state for eight years. bernie sanders was born in brooklyn. meantime, clinton is trying to lock up another key constituency in that state. the black vote. >> for the second time in recent weeks, hillary clinton. she tried to make sure the big edge she has over bernie sanders with african-americans continue by suggesting the socialist had

taken their votes for granted. >> we can't just show up at election time and think that's enough. >> we can't start building relationships a few weeks before a vote. >> of course, clinton raised eyebrows last weekend. nonetheless a new quinnipiac poll shows clinton has a strong 37-point lead among african-american voters. sand letters address them thursday just hours before his final debate with brooklyn. >> i believe we'll win in new york city. he suggest she's out of touch in a new york times op ed declaring, we need urgency. big ideas. we need to rethink the status quo.

but clinton may get a bigger bump from the new york daily news. over the failure to answer basic questions at a new york editorial meeting from his plan to break up the big banks to the palestinian peace process. they hammered sanders saying, subjected to media scrutiny for the first time the senator from vermont proved utterly unprepared for the oval office. sanders did get the endorsement of the transport union. a lot of the others have gone with clinton. they oversee the bus system. you see thousands streaming out near washington square park. sanders going to have a major rally near nyu. he's going to need their help. america's election headquarters in depth. the republicans are not the only ones with a delegateem.

a bernie sanders has piled up enough delegates to give hillary clinton a run. the matter of super delegates is a tricky one. >> the democratic party platform is all about being fair to everyone. but the democratic primary, not so fair over the one running. that's what some sanders supporters are saying as they watch super delegates. the party elite to give the delegate to which ever candidate they like the best helped clinton pad her lead. a lead of over 700 delegates shrinking to just 2 vunl without. >> both parties have rules in place. they've been there for a while. that usually benefits an establishment candidate who understands the rules. knows the players. but it is not impossible to get by them. >> a new website lists phone numbers and addresses belonging to the super delegates and the

creator homes to pressure clinton backers to switch sides. saying we will hold them to our vote. but one of them who already committed to bernie sanders wonders if there's enough time. >> they need to get as many super delegates as possible. it sounds like bernie sanders is on it. >> even if sanders' upset wouldn't be enough to flip him. >> there is nothing that bernie sanders could do that would make me switch sides. >> even though sanders has won seven of the last eight contests, most super delegates are shrugging their shoulders. the centers for disease control says there is no longer any doubt that the zika virus causes severe birth defects. the officials are reiterating their advice to avoid traveling

to places where it is spreading. mostly in latin america and the caribbean. president obama goes to the cia. and the russians go very low to send a message to the u.s. the panel joins me after a quick

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i would have to point to russia. if you look at the behavior, it is nothing short of alarming. >> putin is all about how do you reestablish russia as a world power, a power to be reckoned with. you won't ignore us anymore. we'll be a playing. and by the way, doing all that, i can poke the united states in the eye. i will leap at the chance. >> he is somebody that if you don't deal with him from strength, he will try to take

advantage of you. that's the way he operates. >> talking there about vladimir putin. and provocative actions he may take. he has taken. well, there were another couple of those actions this week. russian war planes configured in simulated attack profile buzzing the decks of the u.s. guided missile destroyer. not once but twice this week. the u.s. military and navy describing it as a very aggressive action. the uss donald cook was conducting flight operations with a polis helicopter monday when two russian su 24 attack aircraft approached at an unsafe speed. buzzed the navy destroyer as the helicopter was taking off from the destroyer's flight deck. it tells fox news the russians

came within 1,000 yards of the provider flying 100 feet off the ground. the defense official said the next day, a russian jet came within 30 feet of the destroyer. so what about this? what it means, what it says? let's bring in our panel. the senior political columnist and the author of the new book, love that boy. what two presidents, eight road trips and my son taught me about a apparent's expectations. a great read. and charles krauthammer. all three authors here. what about this? russia is clearly provoking one of many of these different aggressive moves. >> we're dealing with a third rate power. >> i think my opinion is if we had a president trump or cruz we would have the same aggression

from putin. i think president obama made the case, it is not to take the bait. not to overto understand to this activity. russia isn't going to go to war against us. if they do, we'll annihilate them. >> this isn't about threatening war on either side. these are the east europeans who assume at the end of the cold war, east europe was safely in the western camp. they were now in nato. they would be protected. they have seen what has happened in georgia and ukraine. they've seen the response to all the provocation. and they want to show you cannot count on the united states. they want to show they can do anything to us while we are

conducting exercises with the poles who are our strongest in the region. it would be to do the same thing to them. they operate in the russian enclave. heavily armed. and show them we aren't afraid. the russians are responding to a minor increase in our military presence in the baltic states and poland. we should respond by upping that response. doubling it and making it a permanent one as a way to say, if you want to play, we'll play harder. >> you heard former defense secretaries talking with russia. when i talked to the ukrainian president, he said they should be worried. that putin has a vision of an old soviet empire. he thinks they will move.

>> people around putin have made it clear. i think he's right to say they're worried. this is in response to the president's determined effort not to overreact which means for the president not to react at all or to apologize for the united states and its actions. we've seen this with response to russia. john kerry went on all the single shows and said russia will be isolated for what they've done. they'll be cast out of the civilized nations. it never happened. the united states drew them in even closer. the same was true, of course, with iran. the same with the syrian red line. vladimir putin knows that barack obama won't do anything with. this at most, obama would consider sending additional resources and troops to the baltics.

putin is playing a bad hand pretty well. >> yes. do we think obama or the next president will let putin march on the rest baltics states? i don't think that will happen. do we think he'll march on the global stage and embase our president no mat here it is? yeah. the president talked about isis today. here is general odierno talking about the form he head of the army. talking about this. >> it is a big number. >> 20,000? >> bigger. probably around 50. >> 50,000. that's with the coalition cape

bill. >> 50,000 troops needed to defeat isis. here's isis by the numbers. 19 countries. territories where isis has a direct presence. 74 isis plots or attacks including 21 in the u.s. against west since 2014. 300. about the number of americans who are spreading isis propaganda or engaging in other isis individuals. 6,600. those who traveled or attempted to travel to join isis in syria and 11,539. those are the air strikes conducted in iraq and syria as of yesterday. >> this is often an excuse. the spread of isis is an excuse to say, well, it is everywhere. ideology, the internet. what's the point of risking anything in the middle east? the fact is as we've seen with al qaeda. if you have a safe haven from which to operate, do you know tremendous operate.

if it was destroyed which it was, the amount of damage is smaller. you don't have a safe haven. the place to train. also the psychology. these pock limitic movements are about who is winning and who is losing. it will be a tremendous defeat for isis and the cells spread everywhere in the world if they were to ultimately lose their safe haven. they would not be able to say we are the wave of the future. bigger than anything we can do. next up, new developments on operation fast and furious.

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there was a concerted effort there to make sure that the congress never saw the light of day on these documents. they still owe us more. we are appealing this ruling because we think we need 100 percent of the documents to get to 100 percent of the truth. and that's what we are committed to. >> the chairman of the oversight reform committee jason chaffetz on this program. talking about the new documents fast and furious investigation goes back several years butoíh?h'ow 20,000 documents come from the

administration. talking few of them earlier. one from march 2011, the atf and doj, department of justice discussing withholding information related to fast and furious firearms. quote: we would suggest you pull the system that notes how many records we have recovered. it squares poorly with how many we haven't. here is one from june of 2011. the fbi writes to doj officials i understand we are deferring to you all on whether to provide a couple lab reports to issa, chairman issa of the committee before chaffetz, in the atf matter. this is a very bad idea. this will become precedent for senator grassley's office to seek actual documents from doj and fbi and pending criminal investigations. just some of the 20,000 documents. we're back with the panel. steve, how significant? significant in that it gives us a behind the scenes look at just how far the justice department is willing to go to avoid transparency. remember, president obama came in and on his first full day in office issued executive memo saying that

his government would be -- his administration would be the most transparent administration in history and would abide by transparency requests and congressional inquiries, even if it were to prove politically embarrassing. well, this was politically embarrassing, very cleared as laid out in those emails that you just read and the others that you read before and others, that they had no intention of being transparent and that they did everything possible to withhold the information from congress. but more broadly, this is about the administration and honesty. this is about the administration and integrity. we know that with respect to fast and furious the administration mislead congress several times. there was a letter february 4th, 2011 which they claim that we didn't -- there was no gun walking. we didn't know. and then just a short time later they had to write back, deputy attorney general james had to write back to congress facts have come to light during the course of this investigation that indicate the february 4th letter contains inaccuracies. they were not inaccuracies. they were lies. second thing is eric holder testified before the senate judiciary committee and

claimed that michael mukasey, his predecessor in the bush administration had known all about this. had been briefed on all of this. he later had to retract that testimony because it was false. at a certain point after thish,omyxd inaccuracies, and after a pattern of trying to withhold documents from congress, you blame the obama administration. >> so, you know, it's important to put context here bow sides this operation and the scandal and getting the documents. you did have a border patrol agent who died as a result of this gun walking botched operation. brian terry. >> look,vol it will be really'c easy for me as a member of the mainstream media to say the republican party is overreaching here and this isn't a scandal it's a bad policy that wept wrong. the problem is that i think the real issue here is what steve was talking about. we cannot have a healthy democracy in the digital age, in the modern age without more transparency in our government. and president obama not only said what you said he said from now on there is going to be a presumption that every document that is proximate caused by my

government will be public unless we can make the presumptive argument that it needs to be private. instead, he hat been the least transparent administration in this are nation's history certainly in modern time. comes at a time when people are demanding to have more transparency in their government, when we need to have more transparency in our government and when we are losing all trust in our government. when you have something like this where the administration is clearly lying, it's clearly document that belong to us, not them and their secretary of state with her emails. we really have a problem. not just republican party, how are we going to conduct our government in the coming century? >> this particular operation we are still in different instances fin,w% guns tied to fast and furious. tied to crimes. far away from the underlying scandal we have come. i agree with everything that chaffetz is doing and i admire it. but the fact is and i'm

cynical enough to believe this, this is further proof that stonewalling works. we can't even remember what the scandal was about. they haveko succeeded four years this stuff. it now has come out about nine months to go in the administration, this will get the minimal coverage in the mainstream media the story will be gone in a few days, and it%-o wil[( have zero effect on what happens in the real world between now and the next election as was just indicated the fact is the president is supporting a candidate who deliberately created an email system so that it would never be found. and that's what we are living. and the reason they do it is because it works. >> that is it for the panel. stay tuned for your voice to our

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week's result from the "special report" con tender's app. the statement will government waste most agreed with quote it's time to return to a federal government that abides by constitutional framework and strips power from the unelected bureaucrats. the urgent. the debt stands at $8.6 trillion larger than our economy economy. that statement belongs torreñ texas senator ted cruz. panelists took the quiz. you know what? we're going to ask them in the online show what the results. thanks for inviting us into you are i don't home tonight. that's it for this "special report." fair, balanced and unafraid. greta goes "on the record" right now. if you haven't been online, it's worth checking out. "special report" online begins in five seconds. >> it is thursday, april 14th. four-days from the critical new york primary. brand new word that the magic number of delegates for donald trump is dropping. breaking reports surface about legal action against his

campaign manager accused of assault. >> high drama on the high seas. russian agrergs reaches a boiling point with a simulated attack on a u.s. war ship. how the u.s. is responding right now. >> disney world is the happiest place on earth. why not live there? now you can. what? "fox & friends first" starts right now. ♪ >> good morning. it is thursday morning. you are watching "fox & friends first". i am heather nauert. >> i want to go to disney world. i want to hear that story. >> i will pass on that one. thank you for starting your day

with us. turning to the race for the white house. more chaos on the campaign trail. >> pushing, shoving and shouting. more clashes breaking out with protestors outside of donald trump's rally. >> his own war of words with the rnc. >> garrett is here with the latest. >> several thousands of trump supporters lined up for a rally. they clashed before and after a rally at the convention center downtown. while police lined up to keep the two sides apart. protestors pepper sprayed several officers injuring them. donald trump before the national committee complaining about the delegate system being insignificant as talks of a contested convention all more