>> bret: 83, he wins. thanks, everybody. that is it for the "special report." fair, balanced, unafraid. "the first 100 days" with sandra smith filling in for martha maccallum starts in seconds. martha is coming down tomorrow for the special coverage. >> breaking tonight, more than 80 years after leaving the white house, former president george w. bush george w. bush weighs in with a rare televised interview, opening up about division, the media, and some of president trump's most controversial policies. it is day 39 of the first 100. i am sandra smith and for martha maccallum tonight. it is the interview at the center of speculation, former president george w. bush sitting down with nbc's matt lauer to offer observations about his own time in office and for the first time, reacting publicly to president trump's executive order on immigration. there are no questions tonight about whether some in the media

have been too quick to characterize mr. bush's comments come as a personal slight to the new presidency. here are some of those comments. >> did you ever consider consider the media to be the enemy of the american people? >> [laughs] i considered the media to be indispensable to democracy. we need an independent media to hold people like me to account. i mean, power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive. it is important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere. >> by banning people from seven predominantly muslim countries from entering this country, do we make it easier or harder to fight the war on terrorism? >> well, i think it is very hard to fight the war on terrorism if we are in retreat. i think we learned that listen, if the united states decides to pull out before a free society emerges, it is going to

be hard to defeat them. >> i want to make sure you understand, argue for or against the ban? >> i am for an immigration policy that is welcoming and upholds the law. >> sandra: joining us now, chris stirewalt, fox news political editor and karl rove, former deputy chief of staff under president george w. bush and fox news political contributor. karl rove, you are qualified to comment on what you just heard. this is a man you know very well. did you see this as a criticism of donald trump's presidency? >> i remember 2010 president bush came out with his previous book. he went through similar interviews. it was interesting to me that the media did not characterize any of his comments then as an attack on president obama and they were of a similar nature. i thought was most interesting in this set of comments, if there was one president whom he pointedly talked about, it was president barack obama. and his comment on, if we leave too soon, meaning, iraq, i

think, before freely functioning democratic societies are there, then, we have made a big mistake. i think the most pointed, he had today was not about president trump. i think it was about president obama. >> sandra: when you saw the comments on headlines coming out of the media, immediately following that interview, chris stirewalt, you would have assumed, if you had not heard him speak yourself, he would have assumed that it was a harsh criticism of the current president. was it criticism at all? >> when you think about the fact that donald trump once said, i assume still believes george w. bush ought to have been impeached, probably not that harsh of criticism at all. look, former president bush has gone to great pains to be kind, courteous, and all of that stuff, despite what donald trump said about him, despite what donald trump said about his family. he has gone out of his way to be gracious to trump and give him a chance. his dad, his brother. i think they are giving at the

old college try. he navigated these questions pretty well. he passed up, i mean, matt lauer was putting it in front of him like constant red meat, say something bad about trump. he passed. >> sandra: karl, when you look at the pointed questions that he did receive, are you for the immigration organs, i think he might have said the muslim ban, are you for or against it, his response, "i important immigration policy that is welcoming and upholds the law." what did you make of his answer? >> who is surprised by that? here is a president who has fought for conference of immigration reform. it is also the president who, after 30 years, and of the so-called catch and release policy, by spending billions of dollars to beef off the border control and create facilities so rather than releasing them on their own recognizance, having none of them show up, very few of them show up, president bush was the guy who ended that. he reversed that policy.

now, president trump is going to reinstitute the policy that president bush successfully implemented by 2005. so, you are right. matt lauer came at him, came at him, said, i think chris caught it, please say something ugly about president trump. he didn't get it to happen. in fact, at beginning, remember how we let into the question on the press by talking at great length about the current circumstances, couldn't get a rise out of him. >> sandra: even his response about the media, the treatment of donald trump, he made sure to speak specifically to the media when he was president and not what it is now. he talked about the big that was how he commented. i want to boast to stick around, there is a second issue we want to talk about. it involves what will likely be the most important speech of donald trump's presidency to date. first, let's get an update from chief white house correspondent, john roberts. the news that president made today on military spending. john. >> this is one of the big pieces

of his speech tomorrow night to a joint session of congress. good evening to you, sandra. the president announcing this morning of the national governors association at his intent is to ask congress for an additional $50 billion in funding for the department of defense. that would put the total budget for the dod at 603 million and the rest is the discretionary budget, this is for spreading outside of medicare and social security and medicaid. about $462 billion. it really means that he has to sharpen his knives at the omb advice and pretty dramatic cuts, about 12% across the board. the president during the campaign made no secret about his concern about the military. you might remember how the u.s. air force was having to cannibalize aircraft to keep some of the other one flying. president trump often lamented about the shrinking size of the navy. he plans on following the reagan doctrine of peace through strength. he wants a military that no other nation in the world would

dare challenge. listen to what he said this morning at the national governors. >> when i was young and high school, and college, everybody used to say, we never lost a war. we never lost a war. you remember. now, we never win a war. we ner win. we don't fight to win. we don't fight to win. we either got to win or don't fight it at all. >> this is just a very, very beginning of the budgetary process. these are called the topline numbers, we don't have any of the details on how the spending would break out, sandra. we want to learn that probably until may camo in the budget is released by the president pledged today that he is not going to touch medicare, medicaid, or social security, at least not yet. sandra. >> sandra: thank you very much, john roberts. chris stirewalt on karl rove. $54 billion increase. are you a fan of this? does this work for you? karl. >> i support the increase in military spending. i think john puts his point at

the end. you cannot, over the long haul, deal with our deficits unless you deal with entitlement programs. one quick example, medicare, average over the cup up, course of their lifetime, $122,000 and medicare taxes, take a $387,000 in benefits, passed $265,000 onto their kids and grandkids in the form of higher deficits. president trump is right to increase the military but he is going to have a challenge as keeping the debt and check if he doesn't deal with entitlements over the course of his term. >> sandra: this would appear to be a dream budget for republicans. why are some having a problem with that? >> other than what karl points out, the republicans want to deal with entitlement reforms now rather than when it takes a bite out of the back side ten years, 15, 20 from now. the other problem here, the challenge here, trump ran for office and what americans like for him, they believe he can bring economic renewal, revitalization to the country. shifting to the military, this is not a growth budget. this is a national security

budget that he is talking about. remember, when he was running for office, he said, let's quit spending this money overseas, let's quit spending this money fighting these wars and other countries, let's do nationbuilding at home. he is talked about a trillion dollar stimulus that he wants to do one infrastructural improvement in the united states and he wants tax cuts and jobs programs and all the stuff. so come on tuesday, when we are listening to the speech, he is talking about that, cuts, shifting budget priorities, that won't be as popular as if he is talking about what people like from him, go, go, go. >> sandra: what was announced today, will this be seen as following through on donald trump's campaign promises? i want to pull up this poll that recently found 58% think the military is stretched too thin and 45% plurality feels it is underfunded. will this take care of their concerns? >> it well. chris is right. there is sort of a schizophrenic approach. part of the basis said we want to bring america home and pay

attention to things at home. another part of his base said, we want america respected and strong and we want to beat isis. we want to destroy isis, we want america to be the leader of the international stage. there is an ongoing tension between those two elements. those come of that same tension is filed within the american electorate at large. how it plays out over the years ahead is going to be very interesting thing to watch. >> sandra: chris stirewalt agrees with you. karl rove, chris stirewalt, thanks for joining us tonight. remember, coverage of those remarks from the republican president, tomorrow night, 6:00 p.m., "special report" live from the heart of washington. "the first 100 days" to follow from the very same location. martha maccallum will be in the capital with kiva members of congress and a couple special guests from the trump administration. then, "o'reilly factor" at 8:00 p.m., before we carry the entire speech live with expert insight and analysis, hosted by martha maccallum and bret baier. a big night, big names on the

most-watched, most trusted name in news. first, we are going to show you what the white house is doing to catch the leakers and why the press secretary is morning what happens next is going to get dramatic. we have judge andrew napolitano on that, plus, the white house taking heat today about the navy seal killed in a terror raid last month. why that father is refusing to meet with the president. the story behind that story, just ahead. >> the father of writing i once called it a stupid mission. there is something that you would like to communicate about that mission that might persuade him otherwise? the wrong insuran" no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. liberty mutual insurance.

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♪ >> sandra: we have new developments tonight and a series of leaks coming out of the trump white house and what exactly is being done to stop them. white house press secretary sean spicer is coming down hard on the unnamed staffers turning to the press to talk. calling a private meeting with staff to lay down the law and warning what comes next will "make that look like recess." judge andrew napolitano is here on the legal risks for those staffers. first, we go to chief national correspondent ed henry live in washington on how press secretary spicer is cracking down on these leaks.

what exactly is he doing? ed. >> eyebrows raised because the move by sean spicer added to the perception that staffers inside the white house are looking over their shoulders and do not fully trust each other about whether people are leaking unflattering stories about one another. this phone chat cap happened last tuesday when the press secretary called in almost a dozen staffers who had attended a previous meeting in which some negative sparring among the staff had leaked out. spicer asked his colleagues to vote over the phone they had on the table, and part to check and see if a specific phone numbers along to reporters had been called, warning if they didn't comply to round one of this, it would be recess compared to what would be coming down the road. spicer was not pressed much on this all at all today during his daily press briefing. when nbc tried to get to it, the press secretary was able to swat it away. watch. >> is there an internal leak going on right now? >> in spicer's defense, sources familiar say that the white house counsel's office was on board because the press

secretary was trying to confirm at reports that aides were using apps which erase text messages after they have been read. spicer made clear apps like that a problem for official business because they run afoul of the federal records act, which requires all written communications to and from white house officials be properly archived. the apps had to be deleted from official work phones until spicer asked permission to see personal phones, as well. he did not demand that. no of the staffers refused to turn them over. they were willing to have h check it out, though, he can't beappy. the details of the meeting searching for the leaks has now leaked out. >> sandra: very good reporting, ed henry. thank you. joining me now, judge andrew napolitano. you look like you just learn to something. >> i did. i almost always learn things from ed. no exception. we didn't know until that report just now that sean spicer asked for permission to look at the phones. here is the rule. if your boss asks for a phone that your company owns, you have to surround right. they can look at what's on there

but unless your boss is the government, because then, the government is restrained by the fourth amendment. if you work in the white house, you have more protection for your phone then if you work in private industry, unless you agree to give up. >> sandra: he is saying that the staffers agreed to have them look at their phones. >> correct. there may have been coercion. but they did get an agreement to look at the phones. that is on the phone numbers. on the app, on the means by which you can communicate and destroy the records, that would be a violation of the presidential records act. they have the right to remove that act to make certain that they are remains some where in the cloud a permanent record of all emails with government people. >> sandra: and sean spicer's warning that there is more to come, this will look like "recess," how far can they go? >> if they want to get into a person's phone against their will, they have to get a search warrant to do it. in order to get a search warrant, they have to show probable cause of criminal

activity. it may be wrong and it may be a pain in the neck and i may be frustrating to president trump if people inside the white house are revealing conversations inside the white house, that is not a crime. the other leaks, by the intelligence community, the leaks about the presidents personal personal behavior, which he vehemently denied, the leaks of the words that general flynn used in the conversation with the russian ambassador, the leak of the department of homeland security report which allegedly undermines the president's choice of the seven countries to suspend the right of immigration from, those leaks are criminal leaks, and though this leaks are probably the subject of investigations by the fbi played >> sandra: all good stuff. judge andrew napolitano, always good to see you. thank you for that. joining me now, marie harf, former cia and state department's tale spokesmen under president obama. and charles hurt, washington times political columnist. my guess is you are taking issue with the way the white house is going about this. >> i am.

i actually agree with a lot of what judge napolitano just said. we have to distinguish between leaks of classified information, which the fbi looks into, i know, is looking into, and leaks of conversations between staffers at the white house. for me, the biggest problem is, if you can't be sure that your staff is loyal, without going through their phone, then, you have a bigger problem. the trump white house can't blame these leaks on the media, they can't blame them on the obama administration holdovers are career officials like he has tried to do with the fbi or with the cia. these are people working in the trump white house as part of his team. if sean spicer has to resort to this tactic of going through phones or threatening, saying this will look like recess, i think he has a much bigger problem on his hands and a few press stories. >> sandra: charlie, this is a white house, and a president, who promised to be the most transparent in history. is this not follow up on that promise? >> i was going to say, by hook

or by crook, this will be the most transparent administration in history. sean spicer apparently doesn't like it. i think marie makes a good point about that. he was trying to send a message clearly, that message did not get received because, of course, all of this was leaked. i also think it is a little bit of a tempest to speak up. marie is right, we are coming out of the white house, not obama holdovers, wdon't think, the leaks generally, the repulsion generally towards this president by the bureaucracy is pretty significant. i think it reflects the fact that you have a president who has made promises and apparently intends to keep these promises to really shake this place up. that drives people crazy. that is why we are seeing a lot of the leaks that we are seeing. i think by and large, the american people on both sides of the political spectrum, they kind of like the idea of that. they would like us to this place

is shaken up. >> sandra: there is that, then, there are those who say this could take up the loyalty factor, that one would expect inside the white house. marie, earlier on fox today, you talked about your former boss, leon panetta, the head of the cia, saying the best way to stop leaks is to engender loyalty. i would imagine that this is not the way that they are doing tha that. >> exactly. my point in quoting my former boss is that loyalty is earned. it is respect. you don't get loyalty by asking someone or coercing someone to turn over their phone. it makes it feel like, as an employee, that you are not trusted, that you are being accused of something. so, i think that sean spicer has a team now. he is trying to get this communication team up and running. they have had some rough moments in the past five or six weeks since they have been in office. the way to stop internal leaks come over only a small number of

people are in a meeting, is into the threaten people. it is to bring them in, say, you are part of a team, we have to have each other's back, we have to trust each other. if i find out you are leaking, i will take care of it. really, create a better system. to be with the president has promised he will find these leakers. he said the fbi is not going to do it. last word to you, charlie. >> i think he does need to do something about the leaks. most of all, he needs to continue to focus on the issues that got him elected. if he continues on those things, and makes progress on those things, all of the stuff will fall by the wayside. >> sandra: marie, charlie, thank you. still ahead, president trump met with our nation's governors and said he wants to give more power back to the states. florida governor rick scott was in that meeting and he will tell us what this means for americans across the country. plus, the father of a navy seal is demanding answers from the trump administration about the terror raid that led to his son's death. carl higbee and bob jackson are

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>> sandra: breaking tonight come with the father of a navy seal, william ryan opens, the u.s. servicemen killed during a controversial terror raid in mn is demanding answers from president trump and his first

interview since the death of his son, bill owens, telling the "miami herald" he refused to meet president trump and his son's body was returned to dover air force base. now, he wants an investigation into the raid. here now with details on that mission, trace gallagher lie from the l.a. newsroom. newsroom. >> hi, sandra. it is clear the mission didn't go as planned. the navy seals had reportedly lost the element of surprise and what was supposed to be a so-called lightning raid, cell phones, laptops, other terrorist information turned into a fire fight to lasting nearly an hour. 36-year-old navy seal brianne owens was killed along with a number of civilians. despite the traffic.my tragedy, the pentagon tells fox news that the mission yielded vital information, equivalent of the raid and usama bin laden's compound. the white house went on to say those who criticized the raid dishonored ryan owens' memory. his father disagrees and said the trump administrations should

stop hiding behind his son's death and contract a full and investigation. we know that when president trump and ivanka went to dover air force base to meet the owens family, bill owens said he couldn't bring himself to meet with trump, even questioning the mission itself, saying, "why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission, when it wasn't even barely a week into and his administration, why, for two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in yemen, everything with missiles and drones because there was not a target worth one american life." today, the white house reiterated that the mission was planned under the obama administration. >> their recommendation at the time was to wait for a moonless night. that night wasn't going to occur during president obama's administration. >> fox news has also confirmed the raid was planned under president obama and ordered by president trump. though, and national security advisor to former vice president joe biden is putting some

distance between the two administrations, tweeting, "obama it made no decisions on this before leaving office. believing. believing underrepresented escalation of u.s. involvement in yemen." the pentagon tells fox that no senior military leaders have called this a hate the operation, and that multiple investigations are underway. sandra. >> sandra: trace gallagher, thank you. joining me now, carl higbie, former navy seal and author of "mnes foreign and domestic." and bob jackson. what you make of this father, carl, and demanding an investigation over his son's death? >> first off, my heart goes out to the family. this is a very tough situation. the father rightfully is upset. he lost his son. i can understand. he needs to understand first and foremost of the security of the cl teams in the mission status is something that is paramount and unfortunate, i say this with all due respect, he will not get the intimate deals of this

operation because it is just not what they signed up for. i know as a seal, i was in places where i couldn't tell my family where i was. if the pentagon team so there needs to be in operation then by all means they will. i say to him respectfully, do not count on getting the details of this operation because it could jeopardize national security. >> sandra: no one can possibly get in the mind of this father who just lost his son, and the emotion that he could possibly be feeling. then, to make decisions like this, how can any of us criticize or question them? >> we can't, nor, should we. i think he has a right to get some answers. i'd understand that there will be some investigations that happen as a matter of course because of this. what every american should be concerned about, regardless of whether or not they are a democrat or a republican, this president's first, his first decision to send our troops into harm's way, done at almost a cavalier -- >> sandra: must go through the timelines to make sure that everybody is well aware, as carl

will lay out, as well, this raid was planned under the obama administration, i have a very clear timeline coming from central command. they submitted a plan on november 7th. the day before the election even happened. they submitted the plan, the department of defense and how mike approved the plan. december 19th, still under president obama, now, secretary mattis, four days after the inauguration, reviewed the yemen eratn planning again, that had been conducted by the obama administration, january 25th, trump was briefed. president trump signed off. january 26, the mission was carried out january 29th. it was executed under donald trump's presidency, it was planned under president obama. >> president trump is the one who signed the order to do this. so, regardless of what came before him, that is virtually meaningless. let's talk about donald trump and how important he felt this was. instead of going to the

situation room, as american servicemen were fighting for their lives, he was sitting at the residence -- >> sandra: let's get back to carl. i think the timeline is very important. carl. >> the timeline is very important. it bud, that is extremely disrespectful. i can say, it is -- you know what it is, bud, you are used to political rhetoric to characterize some think of donald trump on his first operation. what about the troops that died then the president obama? i would caution you -- >> president obama was in the situation room when he called for military action. >> sandra: i want to bring in some comments by the military officials. bud, there are people that are much more qualified than you to comment on this. the head of u.s. special operations at reports of planning at this rate are "absolutely incorrect." he said discussions of the raid lasted a frequency of such operations around the world. in a story dated february 11th at "the new york times," william

weschler, a former top counterterrorism officials said you cannot mitigate risk admissions like this but you can mitigate risk admissions like this but you can't mitigate risk down to zero. these are just some of the things that are being said in response to so many negative headlines about this raid. >> a lot of things went wrong. in fact, one senior u.s. military person said, everything went wrong. yet, the white house wants to say that it is a huge success and we don't have all of the information. in fact, sean spicer wants to not criticize it because he views it, captain owens come as a political shield. we knew criticize them, each of the bottom of what happened. >> i'm not ready to say -- >> sandra: is an investigation going to take place? what you expect to come out of that? >> if an investigation needs to take place, it will. the fact is, we cannot allow certain details of certain operations to get out there. bud, for you to go on here -- the issue at hand --

>> sandra: we have to wrap it up. obviously, a difficult subject for money. a lot of people can decide on their own. we continue to grieve with that father over the loss of his son fighting for all of us and our freedom in this country. we thank him for that. thanks to both of you. breaking tonight, reuters is reporting that the u.s. senate just confirmed the latest member of the trump cabinet. wilbur ross security 72 votes to be the next secretary of commerce. the number of democrats obviously throwing their support behind him. in recent days, critics tries to raise questions about whether he had ties to russia. that concern apparently didn't stick. as of tonight, president trump has yet to mark four days in office. why are some top democrats already talking about impeachment? all right, we will have more of this. katrina pierson and jessica tarr law will be sure to debate this had. plus, president trump spoke out about what was supposed to be a friendly get together for the president of the press. now, has turned into the latest

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