this is a fox news alert. i'm shannon brean in for bret baier. we begin with turmoil within team trump. he's shaking up the senior management of a campaign widely regarded to be in serious trouble. this occurs as trump begins a nominee rite of passage, classified national security briefings. carl cameron is covering the trump campaign tonight from new york. good evening, carl. >> reporter: that briefing just minutes ago wrapped up. it's his first security briefing, classified, as the presidential nominee for the republican party. it comes as he's once again retooling his campaign.

trailing in the polls less than 12 weeks from election day, and donald trump is again adjusting his campaign team, installing breitbart news boss stephen bannon and kellyanne conway as campaign manager. both figure his brash off the cuff political style to a more conventional campaign. paul manafort remains with the title campaign chairman, but the addition suggests efforts by him and others failed to persuade trump to be more on message. manafort, in 2012, is reported helped ukraine funnel millions in undisclosed payments to a pair of washington lobbying firms, which both acknowledge the payments to the a.p. rudy giuliani tried to keep the focus on trump. >> the main thing is, forget the staff. the staff is enormously important, but the most important thing is the candidate, and donald trump had two tremendous days. >> reporter: giuliani helped write last night's teleprompter

speech. trump accused clinton and the left of casting cops as criminals. >> my opponent, hillary, would rather protect the offender than the victim. the war on our police must end and it must end now. [ applause ] >> reporter: among minorities, trump trails by wide margins, and accuses her of betraying blacks with failed policies and false promises. >> the african-american community has been taken for granted for decades by the democratic party. we reject the bigotry of hillary clinton, which panders to and talks down to communities of color and sees them only as votes. >> reporter: trump received his first classified national security briefing today. before hand, he admitted not trusting the intelligence community's analysis. >> not so much from the people that have been doing it for our country. look what's happened over the last ten years. look what's happened over the

years. it's been catastrophic. >> reporter: nonetheless, he suggested that clinton cannot be trusted with her information. >> i'm worried about her getting it because of her e-mail situation. she can't keep anything private. >> reporter: trump didn't plan to start tv advertising until after the olympics, but now with hillary clinton ahead in the polls and having already spent almost $60 million in ads just against trump for the general election, trump's going to start his ads on friday. they will run in four key battleground states. there are 11 states that are likely to decide this election. >> so the first intelligence briefing today, i understand mr. trump did not go alone. what can you tell us? >> reporter: he brought chris christie along with him. christie is heading the transition people and is a close aide to mr. trump. more importantly, he brought retired lieutenant general michael flynn there to help interpret some of the analysis and help the questions. it's important that not only is he being briefed by this

classified information, he's allowed to ask questions. they're not going to be daily, maybe briefly. a lot of times they're circumstantial and it depends on what the candidate wants. so if trump feels he needs to be better informed, he can call a meeting. shannon? >> carl, thank you very much. we understand that briefing has just wrapped up. we're hoping to have general flynn with us. i'll ask him about the briefing and how they move forward from here. we have that in just minutes. one of the items trump may have been briefed on, iran's expanding influence in iraq. lucas tomlinson has more. >> reporter: despite claims by the u.s.-led coalition to have killed 45,000 isis fighters in iraq and syria, a new fear is sweeping the u.s. intelligence ranks. should the islamic state be

defeated, it may be replaced by another anti-american force. u.s. military officials tell fox there are up to 100,000 iranian backed shia fighters inside iraq battling isis. these are there same fighters who just recently threatened the norly 4,000 u.s. advisers on the ground there, calling them a occupying force. muqtada al sadr said this about american troops -- they are a target for us. a decade ago, these same iranian backed forces killed hundreds of u.s. soldiers in iraq. >> do you know how many soldiers, marines underneath your command were killed by iranian activities? >> the number is about 500. we weren't always able to attribute the casualties that we had to iranian activity, but many times we suspected it was iranian activity. >> reporter: armed with cash from the recent nuclear deal, military analysises fear iran's influence is growing.

the rise of the militias is a direct result of the united states losing influence inside of iraq. the iranian nuclear deal, that's freed up billions and billions in cash for iran to support these militias inside of iraq, as well as inside syria. >> reporter: the u.s. military says if iraqi forces want help from iran, that's up to them. >> if the government of iraq chooses to bring in other advisers, that's an issue for the government of iraq. we are not coordinating with the iranians in any way. >> reporter: one of those advisers leads the iranian backed showa fighters in iraq. in 2009, the u.s. treasury department designated him a terrorist. the obama administration says he's an adviser to head of iran's revolutionary guard's quds force. there are reports he's back on the ground in iraq. a spokesman says he will play a

major role against the operation against isis in mosul. >> lucas, thank you. the national security agency's website is back on line after a surprise shutdown. it's unclear why the site went down. the incident follows a report monday that a new hacking group is trying to auction off data stolen in a breach of the agency. officials are not comments on either matter. a senior north korean diplomat has defected to the south. he was the second highest official in the london embassy. this happens as north korea announces it has resumed the production of plutonium. >> reporter: he's the most senior diplomat to defect from north korea. his key role, to promote a positive image of his country. he was one of five officials living in this low-key embassy building in a london suburb. but earlier this month, he

disappeared. today, south korea confirmed they're now protecting him and his family. a government spokesman said the north korean official had become unhappy with the regime in pyongya pyongyang. >> translator: his reasons for defection is that he is sick and tired of kim jong-un's regime and he's concerned about his children and future. >> reporter: the south korean government is hoping he can provide crucial information, in particular about the leadership of kim jong-un and his intention. the defection comes as north korea says it has resumed plutonium production by reprocessing spent fuel rods. the country's atomic energy institute claims to be producing highly enriched uranium. this has left north korea incrossingly isolated. the u.n. imposed more sanctions after a fourth nuclear test this

year. a series of other missile tests have followed in defiance of the international community, but pyongyang says it plans to continue nuclear testing to counter what it believes are threats from the u.s. the north korean embassy here in london has not commented on the defection. we don't know the reason behind it. but there's no doubt it will be a setback for the country. there have been over 800 defections from north korea this year alone. >> thank you very much. we're going to talk live with trump adviser and former defense intelligence director retired general michael flynn. but first, let's get more. coming up, what does hillary clinton think of the big changes in the trump campaign? first, here's what some of our fox affiliates around the country are covering.

in philadelphia, fattal's lawyers say the supreme court narrowed the definition to political bribery in june. >> and in chicago, teachers are preparing for a strike. the union will hold a strike training day saturday. the ceo of chicago's public schools says he does not see why an treatment can teachers cannot be met. this is a live look at new york from fox 5. one of the big stories there, fire commissioners order american flags removed from fire trucks. one of the commissioners said the flags were a liability. the fire chief says he's very disappointed with that order. that is tonight's live look

wildfires out west and flooding down south. we have fox team coverage. first, senior correspondent adam housley in california as a blaze races through the canyons east of los angeles. hello, adam. >> reporter: hello, shannon. we can give you a live look at the flames here. look behind me here, we're not far from los angeles, about 65 miles to the east and north. out here near interstate 15, which goes to vegas, you can see the flames racing across this valley, skipping from house to house. they have lost a couple of homes in here. but a valiant fight by firefighters has kept most of these flames just to the outskirts of this neighborhood. we can give you an idea what they're facing looks like on the

ground. we're in the middle of a firefight right here. you can hear the for cut through this very dry and tender tundra. you can hear helicopters above, as well. this is the fire they're trying to stop. all throughout here you'll find homes and homesteads that are threatened. firefighters are doing whatever they can to stop those flames. the only advance they're making is coming from above, and you can't even see up into the sky, you can only hear the helicopters. you can see that this firefight, this type of firefight is difficult. the wind is really whipping, gusts 30 to 40 miles per hour, the difficulty also remains with the fact that you're in the middle of a five-year drought here in california. temperatures are nearing 100 degrees. at the same time, very low humidity. so this fire right now is the number one priority in

california. it is not easy for us to stand here, now imagine being down there. shannon? >> those crews are truly heroes. adam, thank you for the update. more than 500 passengers were evacuated today from a ship that caught fire about a mile off puerto rico's northern coast. the caribbean "fantasy" is a combination cruise and ferry vessel. 105 people were treated at the scene for heat stroke, shock, and dehydration. a mechanic says a hose carrying fuel caught fire. now to louisiana, where homeowners are returning to their houses tonight and experiencing the devastation of flooding brought on by torrential rains. the death toll has risen to 12. hello, casey. >> reporter: good evening. the secretary of homeland security, jeh johnson, will tour this region tomorrow. his department oversees the

federal emergency management agency, which has been updating president obama on the situation, while he vacations in martha's vineyard. more than 70,000istered with fe seeking assistance. louisiana's governor says an estimated 40,000 homes across the state have been impacted by these floods, and nearly 90% do not have insurance. tonight, some areas are still under water, like parts of ascension parish, 15 miles to the south of baton rouge. but water is slowly going down there. other spots have dried out completely, like here in east baton rouge parish. that has allowed people like david and his family to start cleaning up and salvage what they can. they moved here after losing

nearly everything to hurricane katrina. and now they're back to square one. >> i'm one of thousands of people who has to gut their entire house, drain everything out of it. it's like moving out, and then ripping your walls down. so, yeah, come help. >> reporter: can you imagine? thousands remain in shelters right now with no place to go. the american red cross has mobilized an additional 500 volunteers from across the country and bringing in more relief supplies. the red cross says this is likely the worst u.s. natural disaster since super storm sandy hit the east coast back in 2012. shannon? >> casey stegall live there in louisiana. thank you, casey. again, we are waiting trump

adviser lieutenant general michael flynn. he's in a motorcade right now. he will join us coming up. but first, hillary clinton is talking about something called tax fairness, which to many is an oxy moron. she's seeking to portray donald trump's policies as benefiting him and his rich friends, but the clinton team is dealing with the news that the trump effort is under new management. jennifer griffin is with the clinton campaign tonight in cleveland. >> reporter: hillary clinton chose to ignore questions about changes in the trump campaign. her campaign manager reacted to the hiring of stephen bannon during a conference call with reporters. >> donald trump has decided to double down on his most small, nasty, and divisive instincts by turning his campaign over to someone who is best known for

running a so-called news site that peddles divisive, at times racist, anti-muslim, antisemitic conspiracy theories. >> reporter: one of those conspiracy theories concerns clinton's health and her doctor debunked phony documents saying -- >> he can hire and fire anybody he wants from his campaign. there is no new donald trump. this is it. >> reporter: clinton focused today instead on trump's refusal to release his tax returns and on his proposal to give tax breaks she says would give him and his family billions of dollars. she attacked him on what she calls the trump loophole. >> it would let millionaires and

billionaires cut their tax rate in half on a lot of their income. under his plans, donald trump would pay a lower tax rate than middle class families. >> reporter: the trurp campaign's response -- >> reporter: her running mate responded to the fbi's provision to congress of notes from clinton's fbi interview about her private e-mail server. >> yes, anything that the fbi gives to congress they should give to the public. what we've seen is this lengthy, multimillion dollar congressional investigation that's been highly partisan, where they wanted to leak out this or that to make their case against hillary clinton. >> reporter: polls in ohio show clinton and trump in a tight race, just five percentage points apart. a new poll shows clinton with just a three-point lead ahead of

trump in iowa. shannon? >> jennifer griffin on the campaign trail, thank you. as democrats try to regain control of the senate, they still have to defend some of their own. one race of note is in nevada, to replace harry reid. jonathan hunt reports from las vegas. >> reporter: it is perhaps the most critical senate seat in may this year. republicans sensing the possibility of a pickup. democrats desperate to hold on and retiring minority leader harry reid determined to cement his legacy. catherine masto is the one carrying those hopes for democrats. >> this seat alone is the pathway for the democrats to take back the senate. >> reporter: she's a two-term attorney general and would be the first latina in the senate. she's making major play of donald trump's immigration stance. >> a man, who wants to build a

wall, has called mexicans rapists and killers, has not only attacked mexicans, attacked the disabled and women, this is somebody that has no business being president of the united states and my opponent continues to support him. >> reporter: that opponent is joe heck, a former emergency room doctor and three-term congressman, polls show him slightly ahead and his connections with the hispanic community are one reason for that lead. >> we're in those communities every day. >> reporter: but having initially embraced donald trump's candidacy, dr. heck now seems more reluctant to talk about the top of the republican ticket. are you making donald trump part of your campaign or running away from him? >> we are running our campaign. >> reporter: are you happy with the top of your ticket? >> we are running our race to

the best of our ability. >> reporter: with so much at stake -- >> in washington, would she work for us or them? >> the wall street types supporting joe heck make billions. >> reporter: his claim of a lead in the polls is accurate, but political am lists point out nevada polling is notoriously inaccurate. and those same analysts predict that this is a race that will go down to the wire. shannon? >> jonathan hunt in vegas. thanks so much. residents of nevada do not have to produce photo i.d.s to fo vote, but many other states do. james rosen has a progress report tonight. >> reporter: chief justice john roberts has said an august 25th deadline for opponents of north carolina's voter i.d. law to respond to an emergency request filed on tuesday by officials of the tarheel state, who asked the

supreme court to block an appeals court ruling last month that struck down the law. >> the supreme court has upheld voter i.d. law, so there's no question they're constitutional. >> reporter: 33 states require voters to show identification, with west virginia to begin in 2018. of those, 17 require a photo i.d. in addition to north carolina, the appellate courts found texas's voter i.d. law unconstitutional. and a judge ordered voters in wisconsin to have the option of signing an affidavit. >> states have not shown there's a reason to have these on the books, they're being struck down. >> reporter: proponents, mostly conservatives, say they cut down on voter fraud. >> why aren't we having voter i.d.? in other words, i want to vote, here's my identification. i want to vote, opposed to

somebody coming up and voting 15 times for hillary. >> reporter: the secretary of state in kansas, a republican, said his state's voter i.d. law produced higher than average turnout, but the federal government accountability office found voter i.d. laws suppressed voters. president obama say they discriminate against minorities who are less likely to pro-cess identification. >> he believes we should be doing everything possible to make it for people to vote. >> reporter: polling conducted pound 70% believed voter i.d. laws are needed to stop illegal voting, with only 27% regarding them as unnecessary. shannon? >> james rosen, thank you very much. the clock is ticking on president obama's final term, and he's trying to close the books on several big items. one of them, the battle against drug trafficking. it's getting a multimillion

dollar boost tonight. but much of the obama agenda is in need of a major shot in the arm. >> reporter: $17 million. that's how much the obama administration announced today it will spend to help law enforcement agencies dole with the increase in heroin and opoid abuse. a boost to a $181 million package approved by congress to tackle the problem. it's a problem that's getting worse. in 2014, the most recent study, there were nearly 19,000 deaths involving prescription opiates in the u.s. more than 10,000 heroin related deaths that year, up 28% from the year before. while deaths involving other drugs climbed a whopping 79%, figures that prompted the white house to ask congress for more than $1 billion to expand treatment. the director of the national drug policy said, every day that

passes without congressional action to provide these additional resources is a missed opportunity to save lives. >> this is not something that's just restricted to a small set of communities. this is affecting everybody. young, old, men, women, children, rural, urban, suburban. >> reporter: to put it in baseball terms, the president's $17 million boost to fight opoid abuse might described as a bunt single rather than the grand slam he was looking for. just the latest disappointment for a white house that's struck out in his efforts to achieve the president's agenda. from additional zoeka funding to marek garland's confirmation. >> if you're looking at a ledge lay tef scorecard, it's correct, the president is stroking out more often than he's getting hits on that.

>> reporter: now, white house officials will tell you they're not giving up the fight on the items i mentioned in that piece, nor new battles like revising nation's nuclear policy. but when you think about an increasingly stubborn congress to say nothing of a dwindling congressional calendar, they are running out of time. >> kevin corke live with the president. thank you. federal reserve officials are once again inching toward an interest rate increase. minutes from their july meeting indicate officials were encouraged by a market rebound after the brexit vote. economists think a hike could occur as soon as september. the dow jumped 22, the s&p 500 up 4 today. nasdaq grew 1.5. there are questions tonight about the claim by four team usa swimmers that they withere robb by gunpoint in rio de janeiro.

jimmy feegen told a texas newspaper that he's still in brazil. police in rio found little evidence to support their story. coming up, our debrief with lieutenant general michael flynn, who was part of this afternoon's national security briefing with donald trump. also ahead,

this is a fox news alert now. as prom esed, one of the them who was there for the national security briefing for donald trump, retired lieutenant general michael flynn is now an adviser to donald trump. he joins us from trump tower in new york. general, i know that it's a noisy, busy street out there, so i'll try to make sure you can hear us all right. i know there were concerns going into the briefing that some speculated and wondered whether mr. trump would get the full

quantitity of information from this briefing. are you satisfied he got a thorough briefing today? >> first of all, i think the briefers that came in today were just absolutely professional. the top of their field, and the discussion we had was very thorough. i will tell you that we were only able to scratch the surface of the complexity of the threats that our country faces. so today was just the beginning of a long dialogue between essentially what this represents, which is a series of intelligence briefings for the next president of the united states. i thought they were well prepared, great conversation. it lasted a full two hours and we really only scratched the surface today on many of the complexities that the next president of the united states is going to face. >> general, this morning in an interview with fox news on "fox and friends," mr. trump was

asked, do you trust the intelligence that you're going to get? he said not so much from the people that have been doing it for our country, look at what's happened over the last ten years. i mean, it's been catastrophic. but it sounds hike your experience today is he got quality as well as quantity. >> yeah, he did. he got a good, solid set of presentations from some real professionals. i will tell you that one of the interesting things is, and people in the intelligence community know this, they present the intelligence. the policy decisions that a president makes sometimes can be in dramatic contrast to the intelligence that they receive. part of what i saw today that just reaffirmed my belief of some of the complexities that we're facing around the world, some of the threats we're facing around the world, and the policy decisions that this particular administration has found under

hillary clinton and president obama and many cases are in stark contrast to the intelligence that we were presented today. >> let's talk about some of the priorities when it comes to foreign policy and some of the threats. the top of the list is isis. how would a president trump tackle that particular problem? >> i think the first thing to do is to clearly define the enemy we're facing. we did spend quote a bit of time talking about this problem today. i was emphasize the fact that this enemy needs to be clearly defined and the american public needs to know that the leader that is in the white house understands the scale, the scope, the dimension that this threat faces, that we face from this threat, and we need to payable to go after this doctrine of radical islamism. that's one of the things that donald trump has talked about in spades. so i don't see coming out of

today's briefing that's going to change in any form or fashion at all. if anything, it re-emphasizes and renews what it is that i think we went in there understanding already about this enemy that we're facing. >> given the team that mr. trump has around him, advising him, including yourself, do you feel like there is an actual practical step by step plan for tackling isis, not only understanding the threat that's there, but actual steps for rooting it out? >> yeah. i think -- so the answer is yes. some of the discussions that we had up here today in new york were about exactly that question, getting into some specifics. but i would just tell you, one of the things we have to be very certain about is that we should no longer be the best enemies in the world where we continue to telegraph exactly what we're going to do, if in fact donald

trump becomes the president of the united states. and i would say on the other side, we also need to stop being the worst friends in the world and we need to renew the alliances and the friendships we have in the middle east with some of the countries that feel as though they're not in our camp anymore. those are two of the things that i would say again, we're re-emphasized to me and i know to donald trump, and i will tell you that i think if you're able to talk to the professionals that were in the room with us today from the intelligence community, they would tell you that some of the questions and some of the discussion that we had was probably as thorough as they've had in a long time. >> general, let's talk about russia. this is a lot of tension there between ukraine, between russia. there are growing concerns about russia's growing coziness with iran. the operations there, as well. and there are questions about mr. trump, paul manafort, a part of the campaign, their relationships with various

individuals with russia, as well. what can we expect on that front? do you think there is a plan for dealing with that very tenuous relationship, which is critical to things from syria to iran and beyond? >> yeah. so all this noise about russia and paul manafort and frankly even myself is just nonsense. we did talk about russia today. i won't get into any of the specifics. russia does not have the same perspective and the same belief in the way the world ought to work as we do. everybody needs to understand that. russia, at times, though, russia is deeply involved in the middle east. one of the things we have to recognize is how do we work if a smart way, in an effective way, to be able to operate and to deal with this problem of radical islamism? we have to stop kidding ourselves. most of your audience has seen some of the actions from the

russians just recently flying out of iran as an example and conducting operations into syria. so there's a problem, russia is part of this problem. we have to figure out ways that we're going to have to deal with them in some cases to be able to solve this rapidly expanding problem of radical islamism, as well as what's happening in the middle east and what's happening here in the homeland. so again, good discussions. you know, going in my expectations were that i would walk away knowing that we have a problem and that problem is not getting any better. >> general flynn, much on the plate for the next president, whoever he or she may be. thank you for your service to this country and making time for us today. >> thank you, shannon. let's bring in our panel. steve peoples, and charles krauthammer. all right, steve, i'll start with you.

we talked about a lot of things. russia has been a primary part of the conversation with regard to the trump campaign, with regard to the clinton campaign. it keeps bubbles up everywhere. politically, it's a tough thing for both campaigns. >> it's very hard to talk about russia without talking about trump's personal relationship and the trump campaign's relationship with that country. you have paul manafort, the chairman, who seems to have -- who was very active in pro-russian, ukraine nearby there. and he's real kri strly struggl defend his work. my colleague reported that paul manafort helped steer more than $2 million to lobbying firms here in washington. this is bad timing for a campaign that doesn't want to be talking about its operative struggles in foreign country. it wants to talk about broadening its coalition, moving in the right direction here,

just 82 days before the election. >> mercedes, obviously for mr. trump or any of us were to walk into that kind of a briefing for the first time, you're going to learn things you haven't heard before. >> i think that what you're starting to see is, the campaign itself figuring out its role with the foreign policy adviserers and what his position also be in these different areas. i thought his speech on the middle east, talking about defeating terrorism this week on monday i think was very powerful. it was a very important first people come into out look, we this country who believe that the constitution is important. i think that -- and follow the american values. it brings in this conversation about how do you deal with -- i think one of his best signs was comparing hillary clinton to angela merkel and how do you

deal with migrants that have come, and how do we ensure what's happened in europe doesn't happen in the united states? >> let's talk a little more about the politics today. obviously, there have been some changes in the campaign. kellyanne conway, very well respected across the board, has been elevated, as has steve brannon. the trump campaign says this is just in addition. we have nothing compared to those working for the clinton campaign. >> no campaign ever admits it's in the midst of a shakeup. it's always an addition, an expansion. this is obviously a big deal, and it is a demotion for manafort, and his involvement with russia and ukraine doesn't help. but i just want to say one thing about the briefing. listening to the general speaking about this, you get the idea it was a very general discussion, probably didn't

reach anywhere near the level of secrecy that you find in the clinton e-mails. but the second thing that it points out is, almost on every issue abroad, the opponent is the one who would benefit if something bad happened, the incumbent would suffer. there's one exception, that's russia. if russia did something it could do, to invade ukraine, and essentially to dismember it, this would be the one item that could reflect really badry on trump because of the warm way he spoke about putin. hillary also is the one who did the reset, so you could argue that her policy is failed. but up like any other kind of failure abroad, that's the one area where trump has to be concerned. >> i would have to argue with charles on this point. i think that putin views obama as weak.

there is a sense that he could put the troops in ukraine because he knows obama will do very little. i think that he could view trump more as his equal, that someone has a strong character, and i think for putin, that would be a little more challenging for him, charles. >> whether it would affect his behavior next year is irrelevant. what i'm talking about is the effect it would have on the campaign. the one area abroad where the opponent, the challenger is vulnerable in this campaign is russia because of the lovey-dovey relationship between putin and trump. absent that, it's all risk for hillary. >> and general flynn there said all this talk about the connections between trump and his campaign in russia are nonsense. i think those were his words. steve, if there's a perception there, whether it's true or not, you got to deal with the perception. >> unfortunately for trump, it's

people within his own party that think that relationship is troublesome. we've seen 50 foreign policy leaders essentially call him incredibly reckless when it comes to his relationship there. i was up in new hampshire this past weekend with kelly ayotte, and i asked her repeatedly if she had confidence in donald trump's possession of the nuclear codes. she refused to answer the question. so certainly when you have well-respected members of your own party saying they don't have confidence in you as a commander in chief -- >> speaking of the nuke codes, north korea is saying they're enriching plutonium and moving forward with nuclear tests and that the u.s. continues to threaten it with nuclear weapons. that's something the next president is going to have to face. >> the failure of the obama

administration to contain north korea. this is a president who focused on nonproliferation and what do we see? north korea basically ignoring what the west has tried to challenge it with, and that's been a big problem for the obama administration. >> we've got to leave it there on this. but there's a lot more campaign

all right. we are back with our panel. there is a lot of campaign stuff to talk about today. mercedes, i want to give you a chance to talk about the changes in the trump campaign with the elevation of -- well the addition of conway. >> it was a bill yent move by the campaign. i believe conway and ban none are yen and i can't

think. kelly ann conway is masterful at communications especially messaging toward women, a key constituency, obviously that trump needs to do better with and ban none on the other side. is he a nightmare for the clintons. he anies how to do op. research. he has been able to build a very successful media empire. i think both of them bring a lot of talent into this campaign. >> and let's talk about polls that we have because mr. trump is coming off a couple of days where he is getting a lot of praise for sticking to message. staying on message with a couple of speeches, scripted, tell prompted and people say if he does this, this is the trump they need to see. if this is the kind of perch they are going to vote for. polls they need to make up ground. quinnipiac poll iowa virginia colorado. colorado and virginia close in a couple of states. virginia the home of the vp pick mike pence you have trump up about w. 11 points

that includes gary johnson in the mix as well. that's good news for the trump campaign. can they keep. if donald trump has problems in indiana he has bigger problems. indiana is a state he should carry relatively easily. i think you are absolutely right. some republicans weren't pleased with how the last couple days have gone. the can can't has been on message. i think steve ban none, stay scripted want to see a more scripted. steve banon somebody who is known as a street fighter in republican politics. the trump campaign was promoting the fact that he is considered the most dangerous political operative in america, right? so this is not somebody who you would expect to come in and really keep donald trump reigned in and, i mean, donald trump supporters, folks like corey lewandowski was pushed out are praising this move as someone who can really, you know, help trump get back to his roots, you

know. remind people why they liked him in the first place. teleprompter is great once in a while for policy speeches. let trump be trump is what a lot of people are saying right now. >> charles, i think you said last night that hillary clinton will have some struggles still along the way because we have many other things still going on with the request for purge investigation all those things. i think you said it will succeed when trump is locked in the attic of trump towers last night because your message is that he -- when good things happen for him or bad things happen for mrs. clinton that he steps on it sometimes and doesn't allow it to fully play out to his ad vantage. >> i refer to it as a box. >> a box inside the attic. >> a begelled box. >> bejeweled, of course. >> do you do what brought you to the dance. what won him the primary sort of being unscripted and in some ways very attractive because of that or do you stick to message which has been the advice that he has been getting. i agree there is something a

little bit paradoxical about the success he has had with scripts and sticking to message at the same time he appoints a really tough guy to be up there in the hierarchy. it seems to be a bit of a contradiction. i thought yesterday the speech he did outside in milwaukee on law and order was probably the best speech he has had yet. delivery is improving on when he is reading. and he restrained himself. and i think it wasn't as if he was going to win the african-american vote. but what i think he needs to do and that would go a long way to help, is to try to reassure the suburbanites the soccer moms, that he is not a racist. the things he has done in the past are far more benign and his heart is in the right place. if he can do that, that was addressed not at the inner city, it was addressed at the suburbs. if he can reassure traditional republicans who could go for him in the general election, that he is okay. he is not toxic, that would

be a big difference. if he stays on that message, he can have a recovery. i think people who bury him now are really overestimating what's happening. >> mercedes, quickly, how does he find this balance between what people loved about him in the primaries was plain spoken, he is one of us. he will fight the establishment. he will fight for us, along with this discipline policy messaging? >> sure i think i am a soccer mom so i can absolutely relate to charles. i think the key is he needs to stay focused on the message of safety in the communities. safety abroad. america first. the economy message. i think that works for the suburban mom. i think it could work for the general election. the question is, are they willing it give him a second chance? >> all right. we will see. thank you, panel. next up, sometimes the work of a first responder takes an unexpected turn. that's next.

finally tonight, our first responders same up for dangerous emergency despite the risk. sometimes the training they have may not be a perfect fit for the situations they encounter. ...

[ laughter ] hold on, we have him right here. [ laughter ] there you go. everything turned out just fine. but i don't think they had a training day at the academy for squirrels with yogurt containers caught on their head. he was just fine. that's good news. thank you so much for watching "special report" tonight. i'm shannon bream. good night from washington. there is no online show tonight. but, it will return. in the meantime, "on the record" is next. >> good morning. it is thursday, august 18th. breaking overnight. two american swimmers hauled off a plane and held over rio over ryan lock tee's brand new story. the brand new video that could

prove the olympian lied. >> the u.s. held back $400 million payment to iran until after our hostages were released. can the white house really deny that it was not a ransom now. >> brand new trouble for hillary clinton. was her family foundation hacked? "fox friends first starts ri-- friends first" starts right now. >> you are catching "fox & friends first" on this thursday morning. i am heather childers. >> i am abby huntsman. we want to start with the fox news alert. recent developments in rio where police are investigating the robbery claims of 12 time olympic medalist ryan lochte. >> anna kooiman join s us with the latest on this story.

>> they are going to be talking about this around the water cooler. a few hours ago brazilian police pulling gunner bents and conger from a flight. the judge forcing them to stay inside the country to testify about exactly what op earth happened. we have learned another swimmer jimmy fagan is also cooperating with authorities in rio. ryan lochte claimed he and teammates were in a taxi cab leaving a club by men investigating police. now investigators say the time line isn't adding up pointing to this video. they were seen leaving around 6:00 a.m. according to the video. it shows them getting checked back into the olympic village after 7:00 in the they were too drunk to remember any details about the location, crime or taxi