>> busy tuesday. >> we'll take it. >> thanks for joining us. "america news hq" starts now. we are waiting president trump to sign an executive order aimed at rolling back obama era epa regulations. this after a white house briefing dominated by questions on house intelligence chair devin nunes and former deputy attorney general sally yates. hello everyone i'm sandra smith. sean spicer questioned on the washington post reports that the trump administration sought to block sally yates from testifying in the house probe of hreufrpbs between russian officials and trump's campaign. things at the presser got even more heated when spicer was pressed on the russian investigation. >> there is no connection. you've got russia. if the president puts russian salad dressing somehow that's a

russian connection. i appreciate your agenda here, but the reality is -- at some point report the facts. facts are that every sinle person who has been briefed on this subject has come to the same conclusion. i'm sorry that disgusts you. you're shaking your head. >> sandra: salad dressing made its appearance today. john roberts live at the white house. john, every day is different when it comes to that press briefing. what did we say today? >> reporter: i have to admit that's probably one of the better lines sean spicer has used. there was talk about sally yates. you mentioned this at the top. story was this morning that the white house was trying to block sally yates from testifying before the house intelligence committee and revealing some privileged information. that would be information that went back and forth between the white house, specifically information about deliberations. well, when you take a look at

the letters that were sent between attorneys for sally yates, the department of justice, attorneys for sally yates and the white house, it tells a different story. i managed to obtain these letters. there's a specific clause in these letters at the end where sally yates attorney has been asking about whether or not they can get permission to put out this privileged information in the intelligence committee. the attorney writes, quote, if we do not receive a response by monday, march 27th at 10 a.m. i will conclude the white house does not assert executive privilege over these matters. well, the white house didn't respond, so the attorneys did not hear back, therefore, the white house was giving defacto approval for sally yates to testify before that committee and to talk ab privileged information. now, then there's another narrative that's running around out there that devin nunes cancelled a hearing monday which was never really scheduled to begin with, so that the white

house didn't have to publicly invoke an assertion of executive privilege. that question was asked the press secretary. here's how that went. listen. >> not to me. he's a member of the house. appointed by the speaker ppl that is entirely up to the speaker and the members of the house of representatives. we're not going to start commenting on that kind of stuff. i do think he is running an investigation which we asked for. >> reporter: okay. that was what we were hoping to run for you, sandra. that was sean spicer when he was asked whether or not the white house thought that devin nunes should step down, as many democrats have requested. if we have that other piece of sound, let's play for you how this back and forth went over the idea of whether or not the white house was trying to assert executive privilege by having that hearing cancelled. listen to this. >> white house counsel office ever consider invoking privilege as it relates to sally yates?

>> no. there's no connection between the president or the staff here and anyone doing anything with russia. and i think that the view here was great. go share what you know. so, no. that's why the "washington post" should be ashamed of how it handled this story. it was 100% false. the letters they published back up exactly what we're saying. that she was asked about this information. the attorney asked the doj. the doj said she had to ask the white house. they made it very clear, if you don't do, this we are going to go forward. we had no objection to her going forward. that's it. >> reporter: and again, sandra, when you look at these letters, you've got one to the department of justice asking whether or not she could testify. the doj said you need to check with the white house because it's the president who, quote, owns that information. white house doesn't write back to the inquiry and so basically this is approval. that's what the white house is asserting today. >> sandra: all right, john roberts. thank you. live outside the white house for

us. for more on this, we are joined for a top democrat who is calling on nunes to step down arguing he breached proet srol when he viewed classified documents on white house grounds. let's bring him in. a member of the house intelligence committee. congressman, thank you for joining us. >> hi, sandra. >> sandra: i take it that you were able to hear at least some or all of the press briefing that just went on. so be clear at the very top here, what is it that you believe should happen with nunes? are you asking him to recuse himself from any of these russian probes? are you asking him to step aside like some of your fellow democrats? >> for the sake of the credibility of our investigation on the house intelligence committee, i think chairman nunes should recuse himself from that investigation. because he also needs to be credible with the other nonrussia work that we do that's so important. i have worked well with chairman nunes in the past. i have appreciated the way he's led us in a bipartisan way.

if we're going to do that nonrussia stuff he should allow other members to come forward and lead. >> sandra: please tell us why. what we have heard from nunes himself is that he went to the white house to meet with an unnamed source. we still don't know who that is. he didn't meet with the president or any of that. he said he needed a secure location to view those documents. why are you asking for this? >> we were working together and going down an investigative road together, and he exited to go and work with the white house. sandra, what's so disturbing is there's nothing that he learned that he couldn't have learned at the capitol. there's no reason he couldn't have shared it with mr. schiff. and there's no reason that he should go to the white house and share it with the president, whose campaign is under criminal and counter intelligence investigation. that's a conflict of interest. and so i think the best thing we can do at this point is have him

recuse himself from the investigation, but all have a parallel independent commission which was always the most comprehensive way to get to the bottom of what happened. now it's an insurance policy against a compromised house investigation. >> sandra: there are some who say you and others are making a whole lot out of nothing here. speaker of the house paul ryan was very clear earlier today saying, no, nunes should not have to recuse himself. listen to this. >> should devin nunes recuse two, do you know the source of his information? >> no and no. >> sandra: your response to the speaker? >> sandra, the fact that i'm talking to you today, which i enjoy talking with you and not at the public hearing that was scheduled with sally yates and james clapper demonstrates that we're no longer making progress with our work. and that progress stopped after last monday's hearing when chairman nunes chose to go and work with the white house rather than work with members on the committee. i think the fact that the american people are now in the dark as to where we're going

with this investigation is the reason that we need new leadership. >> sandra: all right. let's get more on the trump administration and this report out of "the washington post" today that trump's administration was trying to block sally yates from testifying to congress on russia. we just heard from the white house, congressman, yates was not blocked from testifying. that coming from sean spicer's mouth just a few moments ago. >> we have a rule around here, sandra, that if it's coming from sean spicer's mouth, the opposite probably happening. so when you pull all of this out one by one, you may say, well, the white house never responded so they didn't have a position or, you know, michael flynn forgot to tell the vice president or jeff sessions forgot that he had met with the russian ambassador. but when you put all of this together, what you see is behavior consistent with a cover-up. that's why we should have an independent commission look at this. because the people we are counting on to be impartial keep letting us down. >> sandra: we got your side of

the story, that's for sure. congressman, thank for coming on with us. >> my pleasure. >> sandra: we do want to get more on this. michael warren, senior writer for "the weekly standard." michael, you were listening to that. what did you make of that? >> look, i think the biggest problem with this whole issue is there are more questions than answers that we get. i think we should also separate two related but different issues here. there's the question of the substance of what chairman nunes is claiming in these intelligence documents, which is this question of, was this conversation, these conversations that were being monitored, were they between two foreign entitys? were they between a u.s. person and a foreign entity? which direction were they going? what was the intelligence community collecting? and whether or not the unmasking was inappropriate? that's one set of questions. the second set is more to what the congressman was talking about which is the process for getting this information and learning about it. and that i think is where chairman nunes has some problems

here, at least at the very least with the perception that he's sort of blurring the separation of powers between congress and the white house. that's something that i think the white house could do a lot to clear up. >> sandra: you've got top democrats like chuck shumer who are saying he shouldn't just recuse himself. he should step down altogether. as we heard nunes on the o'reilly factor last night, he said, why should i? what's the answer we're hearing to that? >> well, we shouldn't be surprised that democrats are trying to take political advantage of this. that seems to actually be the story for pretty much all of the parties involved in this, which is you sort of take your own reality and say, well, this clearly indicates that the tpablgt facts that i would like to be true are true and tell this narrative. the problem is we just don't have enough facts for, for instance, who was nunes source in the white house? he told eli lake, a journalist, that it's not a white house

staffer but an intelligence official. why is that intelligence official in the white house? is he detailed to a white house office? is he simply working in the white house in an office space there? these are all questions that could help explain these issues and could tell us whether or not devin nunes needs to recuse himself or not. >> sandra: if we could finish with the sally yates story. "the washington post" saying the trump administration tried to block her from testifying on russia. we just heard sean spicer and the white house saying that is not the case. >> yeah. i mean, look. "the washington post" article seems to leave a little more than what the evidence suggests. there's not enough information. again, this is a recurring theme here, whether or not the doj's letter to sally yates' attorney. there's no evidence that that's the case. there's no evidence that chairman nunes cancelled the

hearing in order to follow what the white house direction. there's a lot of suggestion in this "washington post" article. >> sandra: makes me wondering how much is the conversation coming out of the white house. we'll leave it there. michael, thank you for joining us. former vice president dick cheney with some provocative words about russia and vladamir putin. has moscow declared war on washington? despite last week's failure of the healthcare bill to dismantle obamacare, republicans are not throwing in the towel just yet. >> we all want a system in healthcare where everybody can have access to affordable coverage. we don't want a government run health care system. we all agree on these things. from engineering and manufacturing... to stealth bombers... to next-generation fighters... ♪

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>> sandra: dick cheney not just accusing russian president putin of trying to interfere with the u.s. presidential election, but calling it a hostile act. >> there is not any argument at this stage that somehow the election of president trump was not legitimate, but there's no question that there was a very serious effort made by mr. putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental democratic processes. and some quarters that would be considered an act of war. >> sandra: mr. cheney speaking at a conference in india, saying he expects russia to con these kinds of efforts in the future including attempts to undermine nato. house republicans not giving up on replacing obamacare. speaker paul ryan saying they'll

work together until they get it right. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live on capitol hill. mike, does this mean there are signs of compromise? >> reporter: sandra, good afternoon. that's the question i asked house speaker paul ryan. last week he had members of his own party who could not get to yes on the bill. ryan told me today he is not giving up hope. >> i don't want us to become a factionalized majority. i want us to become a unified majority. that means we're going to sit down and talk things out until we get there. we saw good overtures from those members from different parts of ourb conference to get there. because we all share these goals. we're just going to have to figure out how to get it done. >> reporter: last week was an artificial timeline for action on health care. speaker ryan said he's not going to do that again on this critical issue. sandra? >> sandra: mike, what are we hearing about democrats and what they're saying after party leaders celebrated the failure of the gop bill last week?

>> reporter: well, top democratic leaders are reaching out to their leaders asking for input on how to fix obamacare, how best to improve it. nancy pelosi sending a letter to her colleagues today c congratulating them on their fight to repeal and replace obamacare. now she has shifted her focus on improving the affordable care act. the focus now should be on improving obamacare. >> we're at the table. we're ready to negotiate. we just need them to abandon the purely political attacks on obamacare they've obsessed over for seven years. if republicans and president trump honestly want to work with democrats on healthcare, you'll find a partner in democrats. >> reporter: democrats are saying give up your efforts at repeal and they're ready to talk. that seems rather unlikely here with the climate on capitol hill. >> sandra: mike emanuel, thank you. ford announcing a big investment here at home. that could mean a significant

number of new jobs. where those jobs could end up. plus, house intelligence community chairman devin nunes dismissing calls to step down from the investigation into russian muddling in our election. what he's saying today. umbrellas!!

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>> sandra: a federal judge approving a plan to replace water service lines at 18,000 homes in flint, michigan. the deal will settle a lawsuit over flint's lead tainted water crisis and require michigan and the federal government to pay for the nearly $100 million fix.

consumer confidence surging to a 16 year high, jumping to the highest levels seen since december 2000. joining us is charles payne the host of making money with charles payne. an awesome show in the evenings. this is notable. a 16 year high. this is an harbinger of thins to come. you can feel the momentum. it's happened since the november election. but the rate that it's happening is mind boggling. you cannot dismiss the fact that this sort of enthusiasm, this sort of confidence feeds on itself. i continue care what your tax plan is. if the public doesn't buy into it, it doesn't work. part of success is self-fulfilling. this tells us the american

public is thrilled. this has already materialized into reality. >> sandra: this is a reflection of the average american just feeling more confident right now, feeling like we're in a business friendly environment? is this attributed to the president? you can go to something like the national federation on business, small business, they break it down before november 8 and after november 8. clear distinction that this has happened. what i love is that it's continued since then. market has slowed but the need to surface, these things keep bubbling up. it means great news for the economy. >> sandra: i don't know if it's you talking or me, but i'm watching the big board. the dow is up 170 points, at the highest levels of the session as we speak. and this is coming off the longest losing streak for american stocks in like six years. so why are we seeing this bump up today? >> i think you have a couple

things. that whole healthcare, gop debacle is behind us. feels like there's a concerted effort now to focus on tax cuts, tax reform, things that have an immediate impact on the economy. people are feeling a sigh of relief -- >> sandra: the failure of the healthcare bill was bad for markets, but now we're moving on. >> the disarray was bad for markets. >> sandra: ford is a huge story today. this $9 billion u.s. investment saying they're going to create or retain 8500 jobs as part of its 2015uaw contract. they're going to spend $850 million upgrading its michigan assembly plant, securing 3600 jobs there alone, inves millions of dollar. charles, what does this all mean? >> they cut a deal with the uaw a couple years ago. from what we are seeing from them, they're saying, we're big corporations. we don't do things on a whim. we have things on the drawing board. but now, now we've got the

confidence to roll it out. today they said they're going to do three plants, bring back the ranger and bronco. what does that say? you talk ab confidence? there's one thing called soft data. sandra, for americans to buy big high ticketed trucks and suv's is the ultimate sign of confidence. this is great news. >> sandra: politics is always at play. the white house is promoting this new ford investment in american plants as if it was their doing. ford did first announce this in 2013. >> it's okay that the white house is saying, hey, ford is now confident enough to act on this. just like intel with that $7 billion plant. they announced it during barack obama. they didn't build it though because the tax regulations were too high. >> sandra: we know following business for so many years, if the environment didn't change they wouldn't follow through on the plans. charles, thank you, sir. >> great to see you. >> sandra: we are waiting president trump to sign an kpebive order rolling back some

environmental orders. we'll bring that to you when it happens. devin nunes pushing back on calls to step aside. but just how did we get here? we're taking a closer look at the timeline. >> do you think that congressman nunes should recuse himself from being in charge of the russian investigation? >> on the latter part of that, it's not up to me. he's appointed by the speaker. that's entirely up to the speaker.

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>> sandra: lot of focus today on intelligence committee chairman devin nunes who said he won't recuse himself from the russian investigation an has not done anything wrong. we asked the fox research team to take a closer look at how we got here. on march 15th, congressman nunes flat out said the president was wrong when he claimed trump tower had been wire tapped. then on march 21st, the congressman made that night time trip to the white house where an unnamed source gave him info on incidental collection of the president's associates. on the 22nd, nunes held a press conference in the capitol, outlining incidental collection of information, as well as the unmasking of certain trump associates, meaning they were identified by name in intel reports. nunes then visits the white house to brief the president and holds another news conference. and then he then apologized to the intelligence committee for not sharing the information. they claim they still haven't.

on the 24th, nunes cancelled an open hearing with former obama administration officials that was scheduled for today. yesterday, nunes said he will not say who cleared him into the white house before viewing the documents. the top demon the committee adam schiff called on nunes to recuse himself. nunes said the fact of the matter remains that this information that i had long before mr. trump even made his famous statements, he also said, quote, there are additional names that were unmasked and that's what raised concern to me. all right. for more on this, let's bring in our panel. we're trying to keep this all in order. it's tough to follow. but at this point, i mean, the political craziness is swirling around this and perhaps it has become something that it didn't really need to be. where are we? >> i'll tell you where we are.

we're all following this tic toc but we're failing sometimes to cover what nunes has learned and what nunes has learned is that there was incidental collection of the trump team's conversation well before we were made aware of earlier and that those conversations do not relate to russia. so what the under lying information is that this is much more explosive and broad set of facts. this is no longer about the conversations between trump team and russia. >> sandra: but did somebody fumble the ball here? we're not talking about that because democrats have been able to run with this narrative about what happened at the white house when nunes walked in there. >> no. the problem is there was incidental collection of conversations that should not be unmasked that were unmasked that were put in reports. the names of the trump associates were put in reports. devin nunes is having to respond to this breath taking idea that one administration uses its

powers to investigate and spy on the incoming administration. that is just something that is not tolerable. >> sandra: richard, are we focusing on the real issue here? >> i think matt is making a big jump to say based upon this information that the public hasn't seen the intelligence committee members haven't seen that the obama white house was somehow, some way spying on the trump administration. for me, here's where the crux of the problem lies. who waved him into the white house? why didn't he get this briefing on the hill where there is a skip, which is a secure room to receive intelligence briefings? why did he go to the white house? who waved him in? why did he not tell both democrats and republicans what was said in that meeting? to me, mr. nunes has no credibility. i feel as though the american people should focus on the senate investigation where we see mark warner and his republican colleague working together and they're not taking secret trips to the white house. >> may i respond?

>> sandra: nunes response is he did this at the white house to have a secure environment in which to view these documents? >> i don't know if he was meeting with somebody that would only meet at the white house. i don't know what those particulars are, richard. he'll have to explain them in a public forum and make his case. but the question is, it has nothing to do with where he heard the information. it has to do with the information. congress will handle this in a bipartisan way. all this information will be relaid in the appropriate way. what i'm sad at is we're not covering the fact that what he is finding out that is more troubling revelations about the politicalization of this intelligence process. i think it's gross. we should all be against this. you should join me in saying if that happened, it was wrong. >> sandra: i'm going to ask the panel to stand by, matt and richard. we've got president trump signing the energy independence executive order. dismantling at least half dozen environmental regulations put in place during the obama administration.

we are waiting to see this signing. ed henry joins us live from washington. all right. set this up for us, ed. what are the fire points of this order? >> well, sandra, what's interesting is that big picture this is a vastly different approach to climate change than we saw under president obama. you mentioned about half dozen obama era regulations being dismantled in terms of dealing with the environment. and there are a whole bunch more that are now officially under review because of president trump taking out that pen and signing that executive order at the epa. it was previewed a short time ago by his epa chief scott pruitt. watch. >> this is going to create jobs in the energy sector, the coal sector across the country. for too long, over the last several years, you had certain industries, certain sectors of our economy that were within the cross hairs of the epa. these industries like the coal sector were under assault. and so that is not going to happen any more.

>> reporter: remember back in the campaign, president trump, then candidate trump, spent a lot of time in coal country highlighting those comments by hillary clinton about how she wanted to put some of these coal companies out of business and their workers basically out of jobs. she lost. the president won. and that's why he's signing the executive order. >> sandra: any reaction from democrats? >> reporter: democrats say what is happening is the pendulum is shifting far from protecting the environment to now just a complete focus on creating jobs and focused on the economy. tom harper's a democrat. here's what he said. >> despite tall rhetoric this order clearly proves this administration is not serious about protecting jobs or our environment. let's be perfectly clear. this executive order will not bring back the coal industry. donald trump saying so otherwise is just not true. it's an insult to the men and women who voted for him.

>> reporter: the president's aides insist otherwise. if you go through it, what is happening with these regulations being dismantled. they say it will protect the environment while increasing energy independence. epa is going to review that clean power plan by the obama administration, focus on what the white house said is a prosperous economy. and then identify other regulations in the weeks and months ahead that they think could also be repealed in order to get the balance more on jobs than environmental protection. sean spicer at the briefing today insisted they think they can do both, sandra. >> sandra: ed henry, thank you. back to our political panel. matt, i'll throw this to you first. this long -- this was a long time campaign promise by donald trump. this is clearly a sign that he plans to follow through on that. >> yeah, absolutely, sandra. with the trump administration comes down to one basic political question. is, can we get this economy

humming, growing? can we add jobs, including energy jobs? we all know one of the biggest inputs to the creation of new jobs are energy prices. and the idea that we can use all different types of american energy, we're really rich in energy if we'd actually use it all, get the government out of the way. i think it's going to do nothing but increase the economic pro-specifics for people hurting in the country. >> sandra: with scott pruitt at the helm of the epa, richard, he said they're going to create jobs in the coal sector, energy sector. he said in his own words the coal sector has been under assault. that is not going to happen anymore. scott pruitt's words. richard? >> couple points. number one, to matt's point, we have seen over time that the price of energy overall has been on a downward sloping, meaning that shouldn't be a reason corporations are creating job. corporations are creating jobbing because they feel like the current environment may not be as friendly. to the coal argument that

mr. pruitt is making, that is factorially correct. a coal pwa baron said it isn't regulations that have hurt coal, it's technology and competition. these coal jobs are not coming back. so when the head of the coal baron of america said these coal jobs rrpblt coming back, i don't care what regulation donald trump wants to repeal, these jobs ain't coming back, sandra. >> sandra: matt, i'll let you respond to that? >> completely untrue. you never know what's gonna happen tomorrow. you never know what's gonna happen in terms of our technology and our understanding and energy needs and what's going to happen to another energy supplement. so i think that it's marginal question. every time you pull back a regulation or take a tax rate down or make it easier to use a commodity like coal, it will help our economy overall. i think richard is wrong. >> how do you respond to the fact that the main coal baron in america, robert murray, said these jobs aren't coming back.

>> there's two questions. the first question is, is that will some of them come back? i think this is a question of, there's a marginal utility to making sure that we get every job we can. richard, if it was your job, you'd want it to come back. secondly, they have new forms of energy, brings the cost of all of them down. >> sandra: clearly, richard, the target here and the fact is that the epa and scott pruitt is saying there are regulations that had been stifling the ability for some of these sectors to grow. they plan to roll back some of those with this executive order that the president should be momentarily signing. we will see. all right? we laid it out for you. thanks to both of you for joining us. president trump inviting senators from both sides of the aisle to the white house tonight to hammer out a deal on the confirmation vote for supreme court nominee judge neil gorsuch. how is that going to go? plus this video sparking outrage on social media. a boy with special needs detained for an hour by the tsa.

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>> shepard smith on the fox newsde newsdesk. more on whether the white house tried to block sally yates from testifying before congress on russia. a live report from the white house. plus, new exclusive video in the intense fighting on the ground in iraq. after word that the united states is sending more troops to what could be the most critical battle yet in the war against the islamic state. civilian casualties, how bad is it? that's coming up on shepard smith reporting. we'll see you then. >> sandra: president trump hosting senators from both parties tonight at the white house seeking common ground on the confirmation vote for supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. peter doocy is live on capitol hill. what worries democrats the most about republicans using the nuclear option to confirm gorsuch? >> reporter: sandra, democrats are saying they think the job is

just too big to use the nuclear option, so they think that republicans and the majority should find a big bipartisan coalition to get at least 60 votes to confirm him even though they can do it with just 51. >> i think that there's a substantial and significant difference between changing the rules as related to cabinet nominations, district court judges, and the supreme court of the united states. >> reporter: and the white house just addressed this. they are now accusing democrats of hypocrisy. >> when the shoe was on the other foot, when a supreme court nominee for democratic president went through the confirmation hearings and meetings with senators from both parties, neither justices kagan faced an filibuster. both received republican votes in support of their confirmation. >> reporter: democrats on the judiciary committee delayed a

committee vote for one week on gorsuch confirmation so it will be at least another week before they send him to the full senate. just a few minutes ago mitch mcconnell was asked, are you going to go nuclear? he said that's going to be up to the democrats. sandra? >> sandra: peter doocy, thank you. just moments ago president trump signing an executive order aiming to roll back on epa regulations. >> -- federal overreach, restore economic freedom and allow our companies and our workers to thrive, compete and succeed on a level playing field for the first time in a long time, fellas. been a long time. i'm not just talking about eight years. we're talking about a lot longer than eight years. you people know it maybe better than anybody. thanks as well to the many distinguished members of congress who have taken the time to be here. i want to thank all of our industry leaders who are with us and who share our determination

to create jobs in america, for americans. and shelly, thank you very much, also. i spotted you in the audience. thank you. that is what this is all about, bringing back our jobs, bringing back our dreams, and making america wealthy again. i also want to thank the dedicated public servants who are with us this afternoon. you're doing important work to protect our health and public resources. so important. finally, i want to acknowledge the truly amazing people behind me on this stage. our incredible coal miners. [ applause ] we love our coal miners. thank you. great people. over the past two years, i have

spent time with the miners all over america. they told me about the struggles they've endured. i actually, in one case, i went to a group of miners in west virginia. you remember, shelly. and i said, how about this? why don't we get together. we'll go to another place. you'll get another job. you won't mine any more. do you like that idea? they said, no, we don't like that idea, we love to mine. that's what we want to do. i said, if that's what you want to do, that's what you're going to do. and i was very impressed. they love the job. that's what their job is. i fully understand that. i grew up in a real estate family and, until this recent little excursion into the world of politics, i could never understand why anybody would not want to be in the world of real estate. believe me. so i understand it. and we're with you 100%. an that's what you're gonna do. okay? [ applause ]

the miners told me about the attacks on their jobs and their livelihoods. they told me about the efforts to shut down their mines, their communities and their very way of life. i made them this promise. we will put our miners back to work. [ applause ] we've already eliminated a devastating anti-coal regulation, but that was just the beginning. today i'm taking bold action to follow through on that promise. my administration is putting an end to the war on coal. gonna have clean coal. really clean coal. with today's executive action, i am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on american energy, to reverse government intrusion and to cancel job

killing regulations. [ applause ] and by the way, regulations not only in this industry, but in every industry. we're doing them by the thousands. every industry. and we're gonna have safety. we're gonna have clean water. we're gonna have clean air. but so many are unnecessary. and so many are job killing. we're getting rid of the bad ones. one after another, we are keeping our promises and putting power back into the hands of the people. first, today's energy independence action calls for an immediate reevaluation of the so-called clean power plan. perhaps -- [ applause ] perhaps no single regulation

threatens our miners, energy workers and companies more than this crushing attack on american industry. second, we're lifting the ban on federal leasing for coal production. third, we are lifting job killing restrictions on the production of oil, natural gas, clean coal and shale energy. and finally, we are returning power to the states, where that power belongs. states and local communities know what is best for them. they understand it. they get it. they've been doing it for a long time. it was taken away from them and not handled well. and they are the ones that we should now and will now empower to decide. my action today is the latest in the series of steps to create american jobs and to grow american wealth. we're ending the theft of american prosperity and

rebuilding our beloved country. we approved the permit to finally build the keystone pipeline and cleared the way to completion of the dakota access pipeline. thousands and thousands of jobs. [ applause ] we've already created a half million new jobs in the first two jobs reports of my administration. and if you notice today, ford, great company, announced massive new spending on three big plants in the state of michigan, a state which i love very much. do you remember what happened in michigan? remember? november 8th. oh, that was an exciting michigan evening. and ford just made that announcement. that's a great announcement. it's a very important announcement. means jobs, jobs, jobs. we're going to continue to expand energy production and we

will also create more jobs in infrastructure, trucking and manufacturing. this will allow the epa to focus on its primary mission of protecting our air and protecting our water. together we are going to start a new energy revolution, one that celebrates american production on american soil. we want to make our goods here instead of shipping them in from other countries all over the world. they ship in, ship in, take americans' money, take the money, go home, take our jobs, take our companies. no longer, folks. no longer. we believe in those really magnificent words. made in the usa. [ applause ] right, fellas?

we will unlock job producing natural gas, oil and shale energy. we will produce american coal to power american industry. we will transport american energy through american pipelines made with american steel. made with american steel. can you believe somebody would actually say that? [ applause ] this came up a little bit co-incidentally when i was signing the pipeline deals. i have got them done. i said, folks, when do we get steel? said i think it's from foreign lands. i said, no good. who makes it? who makes those beautiful pipes for the pipeline? sir, they're made outside of this country. i said, no more, no more. so we added a little clause. didn't take much. and you want to build pipelines in this country? you're gonna buy your steel and have it fabricated here.

makes sense. doesn't it make sense, bob? he knows. [ applause ] together we will create millions of good american jobs. also, so many energy jobs. and really lead to unbelievable prosperity all throughout our country. and rick perry's going to have a lot to do with that. i want to just thank everybody in this room. you're all very special people. in particular i want to thank the miners. my guys, they'll get enough thanks. these people haven't had enough thanks. they've had a hard time for a long time. [ applause ]

[ applause ] tough looking guys, too, i'll tell you what. not gonna mess around with this group. right? all right. thank you, fellas. i made my promise. and i keep my promise. so i want to thank everybody in the room. god bless you, and god bless america. thank you very much. thank you. [ applause ] come on, fellas.

basically, do you know what this is? do you know what this is, right? you're going back to work. you're going back to work. ready? >> we're ready. >> sandra: all right. you are watching president donald trump with coal miners beside him, signing a new executive order on energy. rolling back obama era regulations that he said have stifled these industries like oil, like gas, like coal. he says he's gonna bring jobs back, and in his words, this signals a new energy revolution that celebrates american production on american soil. a few things that will remind you what he has planned to do here. remember, this long fulfills or targets a campaign promise. he said he's gonna protect the environment while increasing energy.

the epa is going to review the clean power plants. he's gonna focus on a better, more prosperous economy. he's going to rescind moratorium on coal, identify regulations that may prohibit domestic energy production. all this in an effort his administration says to create jobs in the oil and gas sector. he's gonna create jobs in the sectors, coal sector across the country. i'll remind you what scott pruitt, head of the epa, said earlier. said the coal sector has been under assault and that is not going to happen any more. so donald trump, he has promised to roll back those regulations. you just heard him sort of jokingly say, it's not just here. he's going to be rolling back those regulations in all sectors that he believes have stifled or slowed down business and job growth in this country. the president donald trump, you're seeing it right there, coal miners behind him, signing a new executive order. he's long promised to do this. you are witnessing him with that

pen doing so right now. also, bunch of talk about the keystone pipeline. thanks so much for joining us on "america's news hq." i will be back here tomorrow. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast. a hearing on russia's involvement in our elections isn't going to happen after all. now the white house on defensive. the dangerous push to wipe out isis going door-to-door. and the islamic state's last stand in its so-called capitol. the terror group's last major strong hold in iraq. today a new report calls out the u.s.-backed coalition suggesting it's been careless about killing innocent people. let's get to it. first from the fox news desk, the white house is denyi