make america great. >> "special report" is next. he was an iranian nuclear scientist. he might have have been a spy. he might have worked for america. and he did show up in hillary clinton's private e-mails. tonight, he's dead. this is "special report." good evening. welcome to washington. i'm bret baier. there's new fallout from hillary clinton's seemingly never-ending e-mail scandal. the case of an iranian scientist executed for treason in iran was the subject of e-mails that passed through clinton's unsecured private server. clinton critics are drawing their own conclusions.

clinton's campaign says this is evidence of more republicans believing conspiracy species. james rosen looks at the facts tonight. >> reporter: on his return to july, the nuclear scientist had made a pilgrimage to mecca, then disappeared for a year, then showed up in videos claiming to be kidnapped by the cia. >> he's free to go, he's free to come. these decisions are his alone to make. >> reporter: he said he then escaped to the pakistani embassy and demanded a flight home. he was originally welcomed back home, only then to hang him as a traitor. >> translator: americans assumed for a while that iran was not aware of this person's actions and what he was linked to.

>> we've made our concerns known at large around iranian due process, around iranian respect for human rights. >> reporter: clinton's deputy chief of staff noted that clinton had privately discussed the case. a top energy adviser to the secretary advised -- >> reporter: that was forwarded to clinton, whose private server was so inadequately secured, the fbi concluded that "hostile actors may have gained access to it." >> that shows how reckless and careless her decisions was to put that highly classified

information on a private server. >> reporter: donald trump retweeted a washington examiner report linking clinton to the execution. ambassador morningstar declined to comment. anyone who would return to a country like iran with a history like his would effectively been courting the fate that he met here. >> james, thank you. donald trump meantime is giving his most expansive explanation yet of the economic plan he says can make america great again. the republican nominee was play to what polls show is his strength today in detroit. and to republican's delight, he stuck to that message. carl cameron reports tonight from the motor city. >> reporter: trailing in the polls, donald trump compared his business vision to what he called the obama-clinton economy of stagnation.

>> it will present a night and day contrast to the job-killing, tax raising, poverty inducing obama/clinton agenda. >> reporter: trump backed off his original personal income tax plan. now he says he will eliminate the top bracket of 39% and taking a page from republicans in congress, creates three new ones at 123, 25, and 33%. he reiterated his plan to cut corporate tax plans to 15% and eliminate carried interest benefits from wall street big wigs. reading today from "the washington post," trump trashed clinton for a broken promise while a new york senator to create 200,000 jobs in the empire state. >> data shows that upstate lost jobs, a lot of them, during clinton's first term. in other words, she was all talk, no action, upstate new york is a disaster.

>> reporter: trump twice promised details on his plans, but got specific when it came to hillary clinton's results in detroit and worldwide. >> she supports the high taxes and radical regulation that forced jobs out of your community. and the policies have made you far, far less safe. >> reporter: trump unveiled a long list of economic advisers recently. they're mostly businessmen who will guide his decisions in contrast opposed to the special interests that corrupted the nation's politicians, including clinton. >> every policy she has tilts the playing field towards other countries. >> reporter: jeb bush's son urged the gop to unite around beating clinton. [ inaudible ] >> reporter: trump casts himself as a true change agent.

>> the other party has reached backwards into the past to choose a nominee from yesterday, who offers only the rhetoric of yesterday. >> reporter: the anti-trump crowd has a new alternative tonight. evan mcmullen, who spent 11 years in the cia, is running as an independent. mcmullen for the last year, has been the chief policy leader for house republicans in washington. he has connections, but not a lot of money or time. the deadline to get on the ballot is already passed in some tats. but his announcement comes on the same day that 50 national experts ranging from the nixon administration to the george w. bush years have penned an open letter to the nation saying they do not believe that donald trump is fit for the white house for the commander in chief. bret? >> carl, a lot of people are asking is he trying to win the white house or just trying to stop donald trump's run or make his race more difficult? >> reporter: sure.

there's already jill stein and gary johnson, and now mcmullen. he started the day with only a couple hundred twitter follows. he's up to more than 25,000 now. but it takes more like 60 million votes to win the presidency and that's a steep hill to climb. >> charl, thank you. a republican who wanted to be president says he is thinking about finally endorsing donald trump. ohio governor john kasich boycotted the gop convention in his own home state. kasich now says trump has an uphill battle in his state. >> he's going to one parts of ohio where people are really hurting. there are going to be sections he will win, but i think it's still difficult if you are dividing to be able to win in ohio. >> no republican has ever been elected president without winning the state of ohio. will it make any difference

if kasich endorses trump? let me know on twitter @bretbair. while donald trump mines for votes, hillary clinton is trying to build support in florida tonight, as her campaign is still trying to clean up her explanation on fox news sunday about her public statements on her e-mail server. mike emanuel is following the clinton campaign tonight from st. petersburg. >> reporter: hillary clinton in st. petersburg, trying to lock up battleground, florida. clinton tried to convince voters she's the candidate they would like to have a beer with in november, and took a swipe at donald trump's economic plans. >> don't led a friend vote trump. here's the deal. he can't escape the math. you know, math can be kind of inconvenient if it doesn't add up the way you want it to.

and economists left, right, in the middle, all say the same thing, that trump's policies would throw us into a recession. >> reporter: and later, clinton returned to one of her favorite lines of attack. >> he's the same donald trump that makes his shirts and ties overseas instead of in the united states. >> reporter: but one completic questions where the clothes she wears were made? clinton has a four-point edge over donald trump, 44-39%. clinton is scoring well with voters on temperament to be president. 61% say she has the right personality to seven effectively, only 27% of those surveyed say the same about trump. clinton struggles on the question of being honest and trustworthy, which has been affected by her e-mail controversy. after clinton said she may have

short circuited on the e-mail matter, a week after that interview aired, her running mate was trying to put the issue to rest. >> she was saying what director comey acknowledged to be true, that when she spoke to the fbi, when she was talking to the fbi, the fbi thought her answers in that setting were truthful. the bottom line is this, she kne made a mistake and said over and over again i made a mistake and i apologize. >> reporter: clinton will make a stop in miami to put the presidential campaign spotlight on the zika virus. clinton is expected to visit a health care center to raise awareness about what she calls a serious public health threat. >> mike, thank you. this is a fox news alert. just in to fox news, the parents of two of the men who died during the benghazi attacks are suing hillary clinton. the plaintiffs say clinton's

negligence was directly responsible for smith and woods' deaths. it implies clinton's e-mails were also involved. getting just about anywhere in the u.s. today was more challenging than usual. if you were flying, you probably know this. delta airlines was crippled by a power outage that stranded thousands of travelers. good evening, jonathan. >> reporter: evening, bret. at last count, delta canceled 451 flighting out of a total 6,000 flights scheduled for today. the airline says all its computer systems are back online, but they're still in recovery line and they're warning passengers to expect additional delaying. the head of delta described the efforts to restore service as all hands on deck. he addressed customers in a video posted to the web.

>> i apologize for the challenges this has created for you with your travel experience. the delta team is working very hard to restore and get these systems pack as quick as possible. >> reporter: officials blame this on a power outage. this has affected tens of thousands of passengers, many of whom become stranded, while technicians worked from check-in kios conversations to gate agents. >> i think they've taken us off our flight and trying to figure out rerouting. >> reporter: delta brought in additional personnel to reroute stranded passengers. by mid morning, many flights were back in the air. many were surprised that one center could temporarily paralyze an airline worldwide. >> it is concerning, because it

lets us know we are dependent on technology. and once it crashes, we scramble to find a way forward. >> that's a little scary, but that one thing can cause it to happen all over the world. but i trust that they're going to figure it out and we'll get home eventually. >> reporter: delta is offering refunds for flights that are canceled or significantly delayed. it's also waiving change fees for passengers who prefer to reschedule over the next four days. in addition, delta is offering $200 travel vouchers for anyone whose flight was canceled or delays more than three hours. >> jonathan, thank you. up next, preaching to the choir about politics. what many american churchgoers are hearing from the pulpit this election season. here's what some of our fox affiliates are covering. in kansas city, with the investigation into the death of a 10-year-old boy on a water

slide. the water park has been closed. officials do not know what happened yet. the boy is the son of a state lawmaker. fox 26 in houston where the green party officially named dr. jill stein its presidential nominee. this is her second run, who topped the green party ticket in 2012. he's hoping to appeal to progressive supporters of bernie sanders. this is a live look at new york. one of the big stories there tonight, a not so happy hour or two on the brooklyn queens expressway this morning. a truck carrying budweiser beer rolled over, spilling suds on the north bound lanes. it caused extensive traffic delays all morning long. that's tonight's live look

a breakaway faction of the taliban is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 70 people today in southwest pakistan.

but isis claimed responsibility, as well. it hit a government-run hospital. nearly 100 lawyers had gathered there half the shooting death of a local attorney. at least 43 people are dead in mexico after weekend mudslides caused by storms there. heavy rains from the remnants of hurricane earl caused major tragedies in the eastern mountains. and another system, tropical system javier is moving closer to the tip of baja, california's peninsula. back in this country, 2/3 of americans who go to church are hearing more political speech from the pulpits these days. >> please give a warm baptist welcome to the next, i believe and i hope, president of the united states of america, hillary clinton. >> where the spirit of the lord is, there is liberty.

>> reporter: as politicians wanter into the realm of moral authority with social issues like same-sex marriage around the implications of obamacare, there's been a growing tension and the pulpits are fighting back. according to pew, the people polled who attended church at least once or twice in the previous few weeks, 64% said they heard clergy speak on political issues. topping those issues, religious liberty and homosexuality, running neck and neck. abortion came in a distant third with 29%. >> when it comes to the issues of justice and human rights, the sanctity of human life in all conditions, when we talk about marriage and the family, my goodness, yes, of course, people need to be talking about that. >> reporter: one of the biggest lightning rods for religious

liberty is over transgender bathroom use. it guards against discrimination based on sex youual orientation. los angeles archbishop jose gomez wrote -- >> as far as directly affecting the presidential election, only about 14% report hearing clergy specifically endorsing a candidate. 29% hearing support for hillary clinton and equal share speaking out against donald trump. bret? the family of the muslim teenager arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school is

suing texas school officials. ahmed muhammad was charged with having a hoax bomb. police later dropped the charges, but the boy was still suspended. president obama, you may remember, invited him to the white house. the family has since moved to qatar and he's now suing. a down day on the markets today. the dow lost 14, the s&p 500 dropped two. the nasdaq down eight. kidnapping, the trendy crime right now in you won't see these folks at the post office. they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

the search is on tonight in afghanistan for an american and an australian kidnapped right you have the streets. greg palcot tells us abductions

hike this are happening more often. >> reporter: a u.s. professor for the american university of afghanistan and an australian colleague were yanked from their suv in kabul, afghanistan sunday night and kidnapped by several armed men dressed in afghan security uniforms. >> everybody is trying their best to make sure that there's a safe release of those individuals. >> reporter: there have been no ransom demands or claims of responsibilities, just the latest of a string of kidnappings in afghanistan. rising criminal activity, rising to an insecurity mix for foreigners and all in afghanistan. last week, vans carrying adventurer tourists, including americans, were rocketed by the taliban in western afghanistan. five were injured. >> travel to all areas of afghanistan remains unsafe. the u.s. embassy to provide

emergency is severely limited. >> reporter: there was a u.s. link to more insecurity in eastern afghanistan. isis posting images of sensitive items the terror group claims it seized from the u.s. military, including dpgrenades, other equipment and a u.s. flag. also shown, identity documents for an american soldier who is not being held by isis. the military confirms that the soldier was part of an anti-isis operation in eastern afghanistan and some of the equipment was used in that operation, as well. while there were clashes between the two sides, the u.s. military simply says the gear was lost. >> late today, the u.s. military confirmed to box news that three soldiers suffered injury when their vehicle was targeted by ied in the east. afghanistan remains dangerous turf. >> greg, thank you. president obama is doing what he can in his final months

in office to fulfill a promise he made on day one, shut down the terrorist prison at guantanamo bay. lucas tomlinson tells us about a major exodus coming soon from gitmo, despite real concerns about who's leaving. >> i'm absolutely committed to closing guantanamo bay. >> reporter: five months before president obama leaves office, critics say he's rushing to empty out guantanamo bay. >> you see a real desperation really where the administration is out there shopping around the world, trying to find somebody, anybody, to take these gitmo detainees. >> reporter: today, senior defense officials tell fox nearly half of the detainees have been approved for transfer to other countries. opponents say only the worst of the worst remain and question moving any of them. >> president obama's only task force determined that most of the remaining detainees were too dangerous to transfer. what's happening is a lot of

them who were supposed to be tried or held indefinitely are being approved for transfer. >> reporter: the pentagon says one of the 34 scheduled to transfer includes muhammad slahi, a significant al qaeda operative, who facilitated 9/11 attacker's travel. me alleged torture by the cia at black sites in jordan and afghanistan and more harsh treatment at gitmo. in 2010, a federal judge ordered him free due to the absence of charges. the director of national intelligence says more than 30% who leave return the jihad or are suspected of doing so. >> we don't know what a lot of these guys are doing. in practice, once a detainee is transferred, it's difficult to

keep tabs on him. >> reporter: in 2014, ahmed was transferred to uruguay. he went mising a few months ago, likely returning to syria. others say there are clues he traveled to brazil and may be plotting an attack at the olympics. despite the terrorist threat, officials say there are no plans to slow detainee transfers from gitmo. >> any of this 100% fullproof? simply not. but that's our process. >> reporter: earlier this year, the pentagon submitted a plan to move some gitmo detainees to the united states. those deemed too dangerous to transfer to other countries, but congress has blocked bell think law from coming to america. trump and clinton both talking the economy on the stump

every policy that has failed

this city hand so many others is a policy supported by hillary clinton. she's the candidate of the past. ours is the campaign of the future. >> trump's policies would throw us into a recession. the last thing we need. he would undermine the growth that we've had since the great recession. >> donald trump and hillary clinton talking about the economy today. donald trump getting specific in detroit. a couple bullet points from his peach, limit taxes on business neil cavuto to 15%. exclude child care expenses from taxation. renegotiate nafta and withdraw from tpp. issue an executive order to impose a regulatory moratorium on new agency regulations. halt regulations on businesses, and end the death tax. just a few of the points there.

as you look at the average of polls, over the summer, this is the line graph, the red donald trump, the blue hillary clinton. right now it's updated since then. but you can see the fluctuation here in really the last week or two, how the polls have been shifting. let's bring in our panel. charles hurt, amy stoddard, and charles krauthammer. today's economic speech, your thoughts? >> this is the donald trump that can win in november if he stays focused like this. and i think that doing this particular speech in detroit was a good play by him. my first job at a newspaper was in detroit. to this day, we still send those internet things around, showing

50 years of democratic policies, and you see pictures of city scapes in hiroshima and nagasaki and nothing but poverty and despair and just amazing poverty in detroit. you know, i don't think he's going to win over any of those voters in a place like detroit, which is 97% democrat. but he's taking that message to those people. i think that's a very good thing for republicans to do. >> does he turn the page and pivot today? >> this speech wasn't for undecided voters, it was for the republican party. >> he was interested like 14 times and he stuck to -- >> he didn't freak out. when the protesters went after him. but this is what he needed to do. on a day when someone announced

an independent candidacy, and you have all these foreign policy experts denouncing him, it's what he needs to do, is get back on a focus that republicans believe he can stick with. we don't know if he will. >> on the flip side, hillary clinton still coming off this weekend where she's referring back to the fox news sunday interview with chris wallace. take a listen and donald trump's reaction to it. >> director comey had said that my answers in my fbi interview were truthful. that's really the bottom line here. what i told the fbi, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what i have said publicly. so i may have short circuited. >> unstable hillary clinton, and you saw that. you saw that where she basically short circuited. but i think that the people of this country don't want somebody that's going to short circuit up

here. hillary clinton short circuited again to use a now famous term. >> and donald trump hitting it on the web, and in a new video. ♪ >> hope you will compare what i'm proposing to what my husband -- my opponent is talking about. i'm telling you right now, we are going to raise taxes on the middle class! so i may have short circuited. >> what i liked the best about the slip on the raising taxes, did you see how the crowd applauded? >> i do think she said "not," but it got jumbled this there. >> but candidates often do that. i've been on here once or twice

that you had to correct me where i refer to the president as osama, which is not exactly right. there's a lot of cheap shots going on in this election. what she meant by short circuited is she was answering a question that was slightly different. it's not that she had a short circuit up in her neurons. this is just tit for tat. she can't escape her lies on e-mails. there are so many lies now that she lies about her hilying. when you have to say that my testimony to the fbi which the fbi director was saying is truthful, when somebody has to site someone else on their truthfulness, they're in trouble. trump gave the classic republican agenda on economics, cut taxes. but what's really notable is how

anti-trade he is. he remains and he's not going to waver. he's to the left of her on trade. that leaves was an election where there's nobody to defend trade. this is new in modern american political history. >> paul ryan in a town hall in his own home district saying we need good trade deals, not bad ones. >> people have often used the phrase "fair trade." but to say we're going the junk nafta and pulling out of tpp is fairly radical and there's nobody essentially on the other side anywhere of any party who is arguing against this. >> the trump campaign sent out a lot of e-mails say thing economic speech was a good thing. but late in the day we get this letter from former republican national security experts, 50 of them, the top intel national security, michael hayden,

michael chertoff, tom ridge, and 46 others. they say the und-- >> these are not clinton fans. so they say. but they put out this letter. >> sure. and obviously this is going to be something that donald trump is going to have to deal with until the election. and the way he does it is by giving speeches about the

election in detroit and not get baited into getting into wars of words with protesters. but to his advantage, he can always, you know, these esteemed people might feel this way about him. but he can always turn to president obama and hillary clinton's foreign policy record and point to things that are concrete examples of her recklessness or bad decisions that they have made together that have made the world less safe. >> to that point, just moments ago, donald trump putting out a statement. the names of this letter, and he does not call them esteemed. the names on this letrer the ones that american people should look to for answers why the world is a mess. we thank them for coming forward so everyone knows who to blame for the world being such an unsafe place. they are the ones who allowed the rise of isis and he continues saying he's going to

change foreign policy for the better. >> that is going to be a big problem for her. and i think it will focus on during the debates is the rise of isis and the obama administration. that's going to be very tough to defend. her record on libya and syria is not a good one. it's not something that she wants to talk about. but this is something that feeds into clinton's campaign narrative now, which is you don't even have to think about my policies or his. he's just unfit. he doesn't have the temperament. so she's going to use people that sent in that letter in her campaign to argue that point. don't even worry about trade, not trade, none of this. we're in too fragile of a state to have someone unfit take us through the challenges of the next year, let alone four. >> one more thing before we move

on to the next panel about gitmo. there is another candidate now in the race, an independent. his name is evan mcmullen. he's 40 years old. he's a graduate of byu, a former undercover operations officer for the cia. he's also a former chief policy director for the house republican conference. he served as national security and policy adviser. he resigned from thatmorning. he talked to abc first moments ago about why he's running. >> i do not trust him to make decisions with our military whatsoever. with the lives of the men and women serving in our armed forces and intelligence services. he's already demonstrated that he doesn't respect them, their families, his attacks on our american heroes like the khan family and john mccain. this is somebody we cannot trust, the lives of those who are already risking their lives, to. he is inhuman. donald trump does not care about anyone other than himself.

>> he's "inhuman." that's the opening line for his candidacy about donald trump, the independent candidate evan mcmullen now. >> i think we would agree that's slightly over the top. he's not running for president, he's running to be what ralph nader was to al gore was in 2000. to siphon off enough votes to cost trump a state or two in the election. it's a way to give someone that cannot stomach to vote for hillary another place to go. he's allowed to do it. but it's not running for president. >> not a name a lot of people know. but in utah, who knows? >> where was this paradigm of virtue last november? next up, closing guantanamo

bay.

absolutely committed to closing the detention facility at guantanamo. >> you see a real desperation, really, where the administration is out there shopping around the world trying to find

somebody, anybody to take these gitmo detainees because the obama administration is so desperate to empty out gitmo. >> there is no doubt about it. there is an effort to clear gitmo. you look at the numbers from the start of the president obama's time in office. 242 detainees at gitmo at that time two days later president obama issues executive order to close the prison there. ian 20th, 2013, the start of the second term 166 there. as of today, 76 detainees remain. the worst of the worst we're told and half of them, based on what we're being told have been approved for transfer to other countries. we're back with the panel. charlie, this seems to be moving quickly and we don't really know exactly where their going or what the arrangements are. >> when you lock at the recidivism rates that we have already seen so far, i think it's just an admission by president obama and his allies that they are not committed to this -- to

winning the war against radical islamic terrorism. and, you know, when you look at the suicide rates among veterans today. >> dangerous criminals, some of whom -- >> it's hard to imagine the frustration that they must feel, you know, having sacrificed so much and to see this lack of spine. >> a.b., there is a not in my backyard syndrome about bringing them here to the u.s. >> there is bipartisan opposition to this in congress. this is the most passionate issue for president obama. it obviously was embarrassing that he promised it and couldn't deliver it it's a constituency of one at this point. i really have no idea how he keeps going after this. and my question is why isn't president obama talking about this? >> it seems like a ripe issue for republicans overall. another issue, this hillary clinton email that mentions this man who has been executed in iran. here is senator tom cotton talking about this and the fact that he was executed in

recent days. >> in the emails that on hillary clinton's private serve threr were conversations among her senior advisors about this gentleman. that goes to show just how reckless and careless her decisions was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server. i think her judgment is not suit to do keep this country safe. >> nuclear scientist. charles? >> cotton is absolutely right. this is not something that you do. the fact is we know nothing about this guy. at least we out here in the public. there could be people deep in the c.i.a. or elsewhere could know was he a cia agent or not. he stayed his story. he stayed here. he asked for asylum in iran. he returns. we don't know what his real story is the only thing that we know is that if you are a top official in the state department and you were writing an email whether or not think knew it was unsecured and private, i don't know.

but you don't refer to a guy who could be a double agent as our friend you don't do it in writing or ever. whether it contributed ultimately to his death. i don't know. it's unlikely but none the less that's extremely reckless and the fact that it was done is quite scandalous. >> the fact that he went from the u.s. back to iran was danger enough. >> exactly. it's inexplicable at least from what we can see. why would you do that? was he a double eight? were we sending him back? the end we will never know. there are people who do. i wouldn't draw a straight line between that and his execution. >> panel, thank you. that's it for the panel. stay tuned for a team in rio that's trying to handle

... finally tonight, olympic athletes deal with a lot of pressure. alli reisman looked calm and cool on the parallel bars.

well, her parents on in the stands were a little uneven. >> from the moment she was a little girl talked about doing this. >> it's called agony. >> reminds me of what we saw four years ago in london. >> knows every move. [ laughter ] >> one more to go. >> woo. that made me sweat there. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for "special report," fair, balanced and aly raisman. >> three children hospitalized after falling 50 feet out of a carnival ride. >> we have had a major incident at the fair grounds at the

ferris wheel. there has been at least three fall out of the ferris wheel, one unresponsive. >> i have three kids that fell from the ferris wheel. three kids. >> this right on the heels of a deadly water slide accident. what every parent needs to know this morning. >> the parents of two americans killed in the benghazi attack suing hillary clinton. why they say the democratic presidential nominee is directly responsible for their son's death. >> donald trump 50 security officials slamming him saying he's not qualified to be president as a brand new person joins the race for the white house. "f "fox & friends first" starts right now. ♪

>> good morning to you. the sun will be out soon. thank you so much for joining us. this is "fox & friends first." i am heather childers. >> i am alley hunmal -- abby hu. >> a lawsuit filed the parents of two americans killed in the terror attack. they say the democratic nominee is directly to blame for the death of their sons. >> kelly wright joins us with the breaking details. >> good morning to you both. on monday freedom watch usa filed a lawsuit in district court for the district of columbia on behalf of the parents. patricia smith is suing secretary of state hillary clinton for the wrongful death of their sons plus emo