withdraw rather than risk a disruption. terrible message to the officers-to-be. paul: thanks to my panel and all of you for watching. i'm paul gigot, we hope the see you right here next week. ♪ ♪ julie: big questions emerging about president trump's former national security adviser michael flynn and his potential testimony in the russian investigation. he reportedly wants immunity but so far that hasn't happened. welcome to a brand new hour inside "america's news headquarters," i'm julie banderas. kelly: i'm kelly wright. and congressman adam schiff, the top democrat on the intelligence committee, finally saw key documents in the case, material previously provided to chairman devin nuñes. president trump tweeting this: it is the same fake news media,

he says, that said there is no path to victory for trump. that is now pushing the phony russia story. a total scam, he adds. garrett tenney live from washington with, what did congressman schiff have to say about the documents he looked at? >> reporter: well, even before his visit to the white house yesterday, schiff was already casting doubt that he'd get a whole lot of answers, and afterwards it seems like not much had changed. in a statement schiff said in part, nothing i could see today warranted a departure from the normal review procedures, and these materials should now be provided to the full membership of both committees. the white house has yet to explain why senior white house staff apparently shared these materials with but one member of either committee only for their contents to be briefed back to the white house. as for the intelligence that he looked at, schiff didn't share any details, nor did he say if he's convinced that the president and his aides were, in fact, picked up during surveillance operations after

the election and then illegally included in reports that were spread across the intelligence community. that's the conclusioning that house intelligence committee chairman devin nuñes reached last week after he alone viewed those documents. but as schiff said in his statement, he is now asking for the documents to be shared with the entire house intelligence committee so that together they can find some answers. kelly? kelly: as for michael flynn's offer to testify in exchange for immunity, what's the status of that offer? >> reporter: well, at this point we're it would it's simply too early on in the investigation to consider any kind of immunity deal. both the house and senate intelligence committees have said that flynn is absolutely someone they'd like to hear from in their investigation, but we've been told there are a lot of other people that need to be interviewed first and that then the committees would need to hear what information flynn could provide to decide if it was even worth granting immunity. but the fact that the president's former national security adviser is requesting immunity at all is concerning to a lot of folks on the hill among both democrats and republicans.

>> it's very mysterious to me, though, why all of a sudden general flynn is suddenly out there saying he wants immunity. that -- a, i don't think congress should give him immunity. if there's an open investigation by the fbi, that should not happen. i also don't believe, actually, that the president should be weighing in on this. they're the ones that actually would prosecute something. i was very critical of president obama who weighed in on the irs scandal before we had all the facts, and i don't think donald trump should be weighing in on this at this point. >> reporter: to be clear though, we're told both the investigations and the house and the senate still have a long ways the go before any discussion of immunity would even up. kelly: garrett tenney reporting from our washington bureau, thank you, sir. julie: now the white house is asking congress to look more closely at whether the communications of president trump's associates were improperly gathered and shared. that is after a former obama official suggested in an interview her colleagues tried to collect such material before leaving office.

kimberly atkins is chief washington reporter for the boston herald, fox news has confirmed that the white house staffers who shared intel with chairman devin nuñes, there was evidence of surveillance of the national security team, intel director colin wattnick, so today president trump tweeted: if this is true, does not get much bigger. won sad for us and for the u.s. your reaction. >> yeah. it seems really clear that the white house is really trying to change the narrative and focus on this issue of possible improper surveillance by the obama administration. i mean, the president himself and sean spicer have repeatedly expressed frustration that there is a big focus on potential ties between russia and trump officials and not enough attention to the surveillance that was done by the obama administration. we don't have a smoking gun yet that it was anything other than

incidental, but they are putting forward everything they can to put an increased amount of attention on that especially given the news about michael flynn's immunity request. julie: you know, democrats are also putting a lot of attention on whether or not there was collusion between the trump transition team and russia, and so far there has been no evidence, but yet that continues. top democrat adam schiff actually has a real problem though with chairman nuñes announcing the contents of that intel to the media, and he and other democrats are demanding nuñes recuse himself from a related russia investigation. trump allies, on the other hand to, they defend nuñes, as you know. they say the real issue was improper surveillance during the prior administration what do you make of the white house wanting congress to dig deeper on snooping? >> i think it goes with the exact narrative you're talking about. if you remember the hearing that the house intel committee had with director comey and admiral rogers, the democrats on the committee essentially said they were going to focus on trump ties to russia, the republicans

said they were going to focus on leaking. and the leaking of information surrounding this investigation. you've seen two sides really taking different taxes when at the bottom of all this -- tacks, so i think this is a continuation of what seems to be a polarization between the democrats -- julie: it is a mess when you're in the midst of an investigation, and right now there are three investigations going on; was there trump surveillance, was it legal and was there collusion with the trump team and russia. so far no evidence of collusion between the trump transition team and the russians, but there is some evidence of surveillance that did take place whether it was legal or not, that continues to be under investigation. but the surveillance issue seems to be taking center stage because there seems to be evidence. >> well, i think both things are taking center stage. you have these comments that were made from a former obama

administration staffer, someone who wasn't even on the obama administration anymore, had left about a year and a half before all this happened which is important to note. but on the other hand to, you do have michael flynn who is asking for immunity, something that really surprised a lot of people on the hill -- julie: yeah. >> -- as to what is it that he needs immunity from. so i think you have these little bits of information on both sides, and people really taking that and running. julie: pair all those investigations that i just listed with, as you mentioned, former national security adviser michael flynn asking for immunity. now typically -- and even president trump when he was running, and he agreed when running for office in 2016, and i'm quoting him, said if you're not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for? that is a quote. if you're not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for? well, now you have a former member of his staff seeking immunity in a bombshell investigation. what do you think his lawyer

means by he has a story to tell? >> well, look, i think in this case being a lawyer myself, you do understand that a lawyer's job is to protect your client first and foremost, and i think that's what general flynn's lawyer is certainly trying to do in this case, protect him to the fullest extent possible. but i think the fact that michael flynn was a member of donald trump's inner circle, i mean this is somebody who gave him his intelligence briefings every day. so someone so close to the president asking for immunity whether it's under a lawyer's advice or not, it really casts a shadow of questions at least over this entire investigation. julie: kimberly atkins, appreciate you coming on. >> my pleasure. julie: kelly. kelly: a man suspected of starting a raging fire that collapsed part of an atlanta interstate making his first appearance in court today. two others have also been arrested. the fire broke out underneath interstate 85 on thursday, the

intense heat taking out a stretch of the overpass. bryan llenas joins us live from our new york city newsroom with more details about this. >> reporter: hi, kelly. his bond is set at $200,000. this isn't his first run-in with the law either. he has an extensive criminal record, arrested more than a dozen times since 1995, mostly drug charges. in fact, the "atlanta journal-constitution" is reporting the 39-year-old defendant smoked crack before starting this fire. two others believed to be with him when he set the highway on fire are charged with criminal trespass. the interstate 85 inferno broke out on thursday afternoon in an area used to store construction materials. authorities still won't say exactly how the fire was started or why flames -- or why, but the flames and the thick black smoke shot into the air.

look at this instagram video from a driver. dozens of firefighters battled the blaze as they dodged flying concrete. the fire's temperatures were so intense this portion of the highway collapsed. amazingly, no one was injured. when it was all said and done, the fire devoured 350 feet of interstate 85 that will now need to be replaced in both directions. this is an important stretch of highway that carries about 400,000 cars a day through atlanta, now a city already known for its traffic woes will have nightmarish traffic for the foreseeable future. >> we expect the demolition of these damaged sections to last throughout this weekend and into monday. the big question on everyone's mind is how long will this take to repair. we're not able to give you a firm estimate at this moment, but you should know that this will take at least several months to get this rebuilt. >> reporter: the federal government is pitching in to help. the u.s. department of

transportation gave $10 million for the initial repair work. the suspect will be back in court april 14th. kelly: tough break for the people of atlanta. they're going to face traffic nightmares because of this. bryan llenas, thank you. julie: well, the battle to reclaim mosul from isis raging on. iraqi troops fighting off a fierce counterattack from the terror group exchanging gun fire as the fighting intensifies. more civilians are being caught in the crossfire. kithly logan is live in london with more. >> reporter: iraqi forces are making important gains, but it's a slow fight largely because of the suicide attacks and the sniper attacks by isis. but iraqi troops do control the eastern side of the city and parts of the west now. it's thought there are still around 2,000 isis fighters in the city, and they're still putting up a tough fight using those insurgent tactics in dense urban areas, making it very

difficult for iraqi forces. isis has, of course, controlled the city for three years, and it's been bearing for this -- preparing for this battle for quite some time. and hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee this intense fighting. yesterday u.n. secretary-general antonio gutierrez visited displaced families near mosul, he's appealing for more aid to help those civilians. some emergency supplies are reaching mosul, but the u.n. says it's not nearly enough, and they're calling for more funds to help those affected by the fighting. it's believed around 400,000 civilians are still trap inside residential areas -- trapped in residential areas, and because of these poor conditions in temporary camps, some families are already returning home. but the city is far from safe. over 300 civilians have been killed in the past few months, and isis is trying to use these casualties as propaganda against the u.s.-led coalition.

also interesting to note, the iraqi government says around 100 militants were killed in airstrikes earlier today, and it's claimed that one of those killed was perhaps a senior, perhaps even the deputy leader of isis. that claim yet to be verified but, of course, the u.s.-led coalition airstrikes have been very crucial in this campaign against isis, julie. julie: kitty logan, thank you very much. kelly: a frightening scene as one country declares a state of emergency after a river overflows from torrential rain killing more than 150 people. up next, the desperate search for those still missing. julie: plus, house speaker paul ryan urging president trump to reconsider his offer to work with democrats on health reform. our next guest, a republican congressman, will give us his take on speaker ryan's comments. >> what i'm encouraging our members to do is figure out what solutions get us to a bill that everybody can vote for and pass. that's the kind of conversations that are occurring.

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♪ ♪ julie: some headlines we're following this hour. colombian officials say more than 150 people are dead and hundreds more are missing amid

catastrophic flooding. intense rains have caused rivers to overflow right near a city next to the country's border with ecuador. this happening in bogota. and 12 people have been released without being charged. authorities freeing the last man today as they continue their investigation into the deadly attack. four people were killed including an american. and prince charles is in italy as part of a three-nation trip, the prince also visiting romania and austria as a way to reassure european nations britain will remain a close ally despite its impending departure from the e.u. kelly: president trump and house speaker paul ryan at odds after working together on the failed republican health care bill. the president says he's willing to work with moderate democrats on health reform, but speaker ryan is usualing him not to

reach a-- urging him not to reach across the aisle, this as corey lewandowski says president trump is just trying to keep his promise to the american people. >> the president, i think, wants to work with everybody. he wants to work with republicans and democrats because he wants to fulfill the pledges he laid out to repeal and replace obamacare. and i think the alternative very clear now. if we do nothing to fix this bill in 2017, it collapses, and that's a failure for the american people. kelly: joining me now is texas congressman blaketarian halt, member of the transportation and infrastructure committees. sir, good of you to join us today and share your perspective on this. so we've heard that speaker of the house paul ryan opposes the idea of the president reaching out to democrats on fixing the affordable care act. he basically said carrying out those reforms with democrats is hardly a conservative thing. and he also added that he doesn't want government actually running health care and that government should not tell you what you must do with your

health care. so how does this square with the president trying to reach out to democrats in your eyes? >> i think the president wants to get things done, that's kind of who he is. but he does need to work more, i think, with republicans. my friends in the freedom caucus need to realize that if the president's forced to go deal with democrats, it's going to be a much less conservative bill. and what the freedom caucus folks, who are -- the folks who most people believe are stopping this -- want a more conservative bill. so if we have to go to democrats, they're going to lose doubly. and i think we're getting to a point where with the t cameras not on -- tv cameras not on everybody last week, there was a lot of member-to-member communicationing where we might still be able to pull this together. kelly: so when you're talking eye to eye, nose to nose with your fellow republicans about all of this, what are they really saying when there aren't tv cameras present?

>> you know, it's predominantly what you're hearing from the freedom caucus who are, basically, the friends that i hang out with the most is, look, it's not good enough. there's a certain lack of trust that some of the other things that were promised to be done will actually get done. you know, the republican plan has always been a multi-phased plan. one of the big complaints with obamacare was 2,000 pages nobody read. well, the republicans always said we want to do this in bite-sized pieces that people can understand. but i think the freedom caucus and probably even some of the more moderate republicans are concerned that we get this done and it moves off the radar and some of the other things that need to be done to truly fix the health care system don't get done. kelly: congressman, i'd like you to listen to what vice president mike pence had to say today while he was speaking in ohio ant jobs, jobs, jobs -- about jobs, jobs, jobs, but he also took the time to talk about the fact that the trump administration remains commit today repealing, replacing obamacare. here's what he said.

[applause] >> you can take it to the bank. president trump is never going to stop fighting to keep the promises he made to the american people. and we will make america great again. we will repeal and replace obamacare and give the american people the world class health care they deserve. kelly: so that would be indicative of the fact that president trump remains totally committed even at the expense of hurt feelings among fellow democrats in the freedom caucus, friends of yours, because he says he will reach out to democrats to get this done. what would it look like if the freedom caucus does not get behind the president and behind fellow republicans in order to make a passage of a reformed health care bill, and what would it look like, in your opinion, if the democrats work with the president? >> i think it's going to be difficult to get the democrats to work with the president. they're united -- kelly: congressman, not to interrupt you, but the senate

minority leader, chuck schumer, has already indicated that he would like to work with the president, even nancy pelosi has said if the president wants to talk with them about health care, they're willing to talk about it. what's wrong with that? >> and i think -- i don't think there's anything wrong with working across the aisle, but i can tell you that if the program of repeal and replace moves further to the left, you're not just going to lose the freedom caucus, you're going to start losing people like me. i really do think there's a chance to do this, republicans coming together. and i'm looking forward to seeing something happen next week. i think the president in his tweets saying he was going to primary some of the folks in the freedom caucus, i think he's going after that the wrong way. the freedom caucus is about policy and not about politics -- kelly: i get that. i'm willing to -- >> i'm willing to lose my seat if that's what it takes. talk to them about policy. tweet something like, look, we've got to make america great

again by getting rid of obamacare. the freedom caucus is stopping that. engage their constituents in calling them and saying, hey, take this step by step approach -- kelly: and on that note, congressman, i didn't mean to interrupt you, what are you saying to your constituents, or better yet, what are they saying to you about the affordability of their health care to take careful their families? >> right, this is the problem. if obamacare blows up, which i believe it will -- and some of the people on the far right saying let it blow up, and then they'll come begging us to fix it -- but people are going to suffer if that happens. insurance rates are going to continue to go up under obamacare, and working folks are going to have to pay those because under obamacare, you're required by law to do insurance. we won't be able to get businesses hiring people again because of the employer mandate. we have got to get rid of this. and what speaker ryan and the president are proposing is a great first step, and we've just got to convince everybody that we're going to keep working on

it, because we are. it was the number one promise every republican made, including me. kelly: all right, sir. >> and i'm all in. kelly: thank you for your perspective and weighing in on that issue, very important issue that all of us will undoubtedly be watching. thank you. >> thanks. julie: well, it's a big week for the future of the supreme court with senate democrats vowing to filibuster the president's nominee, judge neil gorsuch. are they shooting themselves in the foot as some conservatives believe? but first, here's vice president pence. >> as america saw in those hearings just a little more than a week ago, judge neil gorsuch is one of the most respected, qualified and mainstream nominees to the supreme court in american history. [applause] ♪ ♪ as soon as i left the hospital

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♪ ♪ julie: a showdown on capitol hill ahead of the senate vote to con to firm judge neil gorsuch to the supreme court. at least two democrats say they will support gorsuch, but others are promising the filibuster. republicans may change the rules so is they don't need any democratic support. doug mckelway has more on where this fight is heading. >> reporter: with the senate vote looming this week, there is a lot of 11th hour jockeying as senate democrats near that 60-vote threshold to filibuster his nomination. senators joe manchin and heidi heitkamp will vote for judge gore up. -- judge gorsuch. just yesterday claire mccaskill added herself to the

no list, yet she told a private gathering last sunday that gorsuch was, quote, one of better ones. >> we hope that her praise leads to her support. it's hard to find any reason except for obstructionism to see why fellow democrats in her caucus have not joined them. >> reporter: but mccaskill offered this warning should justice kennedy or ginsburg or breyer leave the high court in the next couple of years. >> so they pick another one off the list, and we say, no, no, no, this is worse, and there's not enough votes to confirm him. >> reporter: she's talking about the threat of the will change senate rules to allow confirmation of a supreme court justice with a simple majority vote. >> if it comes to a rules change, and i sincerely hope that it does not for the sake of the advise and consent clause of the constitution, but if it does, it'll be squarely on the shoulders of republican party

and the republican leader. >> reporter: many republicans say that's hypocritical of schumer. it was his party under senator harry reid which invokessed the nuclear option for leaders below the supreme court level. he has guaranteed that gorsuch will be confirmed by friday. in washington, doug mckelway. julie, back to you. julie: doug mckelway, thank you. kelly. kelly: some commentators say the democrats' plan to filibuster the nomination of judge neil gorsuch could come back to haunt them. take a listen the our own charles krauthammer. >> it's about the next nominee. if the democrats force the hand of mcconnell on this vote, abolish the filibuster meeting only 51, next time around when you might even have a liberal seat going up, then if it's only 51, the republicans would be tempted to go for a far more

hard-edged conservative than gorsuch is. and that would be a self-inflicted wound by the democrats. kelly: joining me now is kevin sheridan, former rnc spokesman, jessica ehrlich will be joining us as well, but right now we're working on some technical issues with her particular signal, so we'll get her as soon as we can. kevin, back to you right now. what do you make of all of this. >> why would the democrats try to filibuster a very qualified judge in judge neil gorsuch? >> yeah, it's a good question, you know? besides rigging their own process to to nominate hillary clinton, this might be the biggest self-inflicted mistake they've made if they go forward with this, because he's a well-qualified judge, clearly. he passed the senate confirmation hearings with flying colors. he will be an excellent supreme court justice, and if they blow up the filibuster now instead of waiting until the next nominee comes up, they could put, really put at risk any influence at all

they could have on the process. and the next, as charles krauthammer was saying, the next nominee is the one that will affect the makeup of the court because gorsuch is just replacing scalia, he's going to be very similar, the court doesn't change much. kelly: yeah, and as we heard from doug mckelway, judge kennedy and judge ginsburg, if something happens to their seats when they're vacated, then the democrats will have an uphill battle with anyone that the republicans suggest, and they would go with a more conservative pick because president trump would be able to do that. >> yeah. it's a huge gamble for democrats because, you know, anthony kennedy, the swing vote on the supreme court on most cases, is 80 years old, ruth bader ginsburg's 84, you know, the baby of the bunch is stephen breyer, he's 78. so one of these members, one of these supreme court justices is going to probably retire soon, and it's, you know, it's a real gamble that in the next two years that republicans will

still be in charge that they can, you know, that they'll have any influence whatsoever because republicans will be able to put up whoever they want, 51 votes and get them across. kelly: kevin, let me bring in jessica ehrlich now. jessica, as you look at this and the fact that the democrats are willing to try and filibuster this particular judge, judge neil gorsuch, what do you think this will do to the democrats, and what would your advice be to the democrats? >> well, right now we're seeing sort of a coalition that's coming together. obviously, we just saw senator mccaskill join those who decided that they cannot vote, you know, for judge gorsuch, and there's still a few holdouts of democrats. there are only two right now who have said that they will vote for his confirmation. there's three out there that are sort of in between. but i think the larger picture is sort of this unfortunate position we're in in the polarization that we've seen in

the house and the senate, this inability to sort of get things done. i mean, the goal originally behind having these 60 votes that are necessary or at least getting close to that is that you have a consensus because there isn't supposed to be a lot of politics involved, and by politics i mean the small p political aspects necessarily for a pick for the confirmation in the supreme court. and, you know, that's part of the job of the senate, is to reach this consensus. and things keep getting more and more and more polarized -- kelly: i think you -- >> and if they go this route, it's going to be ap even longer and harder process as you guyed were alluding to earlier for not just supreme court picks, but for a number of issues, getting anything done that's really going to help the american people. kelly: jessica, it appears to me that you have drilled down to the nub of this, and that's the polarization that we're seeing take place in the governance right there on capitol hill. and this is a very important time that this justice has to

move forward in order to replace the death of justice antonin scalia. the republicans didn't like the suggestion or the nomination that the former president obama had offered, they sat on that and would not vote in favor up or down, and so now here we are with a new president and his nominee, and we're finding that the polarization is keeping democrats from coming to the table. is this a fit for at the? and -- tit for tat? especially in the senate, the senate is supposed to be -- they're supposed to be the big boys of the congress. they're supposed to be able to debate these things rather than let it -- >> absolutely. >> -- be unsettled with a possible nuclear option. >> no. and, you know, it's sad really what we've seen, and it just continues. i think the people that get hurt the most are really the american people, the population in general by what's going on in washington, but it really is a reflection of so much else now that's out in ore our society

and the polarization that people feel on a lot of these issues. so there's got to be a way, as you said, for them to be the big boys and girls there and work together. but we saw this going back, you know, starting i think some with president bush and really escalating in the obama add where, you know -- administration, where, you know, republicans decided we're just going to be the party of no, and it created a lot of bad blood. they're seeing it not only in the senate, but in the house now with health care, with the freedom caucus. i mean, this is something we're seeing throughout washington. so whether that's actually, you know, a draining of the swamp or not, it's certainly a malfunction, and it's not doing anyone any favors in terms of what our future outlook is going to be to make sure that we have the kind of strong, good laws that we need. kelly: kevin, i'll give you the final word here. >> yeah, look, this goes back, actually, 30 years to robert bork, and the senate has just continuously gotten worse and worse over the years -- kelly: kevin, i've got to end it there. both of you have agreed to say

it's really getting worse. we've got to make it better. let's see what these big boys of the senate actually decide to do next week. all right, thank you both. >> and girls. kelly: and girls. julie: thank you for that. much of what we know about the ongoing scandals at v.a. hospitals we learned from whistleblowers. well, now hear what one v.a. hospital is allegedly doing in reaction to the news those whistleblowers shared. plus, michael flynn reportedly wants immunity in exchange for telling what he knows about the trump campaign and russia. is this, as president trump says, a witch hunt? first, here's the top democrat on the intelligence committee. >> the context is we had a foreign power intervene in our election. our intelligence community has concluded -- not democrats and republicans, but the entire intelligence community -- the russians will do this again and, indeed, are doing it right now in europe.

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♪ julie: president trump blasting the news media for its coverage of investigations into his administration, tweeting today: it is the same fake news media that said there is no path to victory for trump that is now pushing the phony russia story. a total scam. former national security adviser michael flynn reportedly seeking immunity in exchange for his testimony on potential collusion between the trump campaign and russia during the election. california republican congressman dana rohrabacher sits on the house foreign affairs committee and joins me here. okay, so let's start with this: is there really any there there when it comes to alleged trump and russia links? >> no, it's a total brouhaha over nothing. the bottom line is that the russians are not being accused -- even accused of actually getting involved and changing the course of the campaign. what they're accused of is

hacking into the system and getting e-mails that are accurate information out of the democratic apparently in the middle of the election and disclosing them to the american people. now, i don't know if the russians did that or whoever did that, but disclosing accurate information to the american people doesn't deserve this national scandal type of approach to finding out the facts. julie: democrats were none too happy when their e-mails were disclosed. is this payback, do you think? >> you know, listen, i will tell you something, if they were, if we were accused and the russians were accused, whoever hacked in there was accused of giving false information to the american people, i think the democrats would have a legitimate complaint. but now that we see that this -- they just were given accurate information. we need to know, for example, if they're insisting on an investigation, okay, let's find out how many meetings the clinton foundation had leading up to the election and how many millions of dollars the russians

put into hillary clinton's foundation. you know, that type of thing. oh, no, we just have to look at what the russians did during the last part of the election we mails. no, i'm sorry -- with e-mails. no, i'm sorry, i agree with the president. this is brouhaha about nothing in order to distract us from -- and cover up the fact that they are so far to the left in the democratic party that they lost the election, they lost the election even though the massive media was against donald trump. he won anyway because the democratic party's too far to the left. this is just to cover that up, distract us from that basic premise. julie: all right. so in the media we like to call it mainstream media, i like to say that as a member of media i report official information when covering a story. official information such as the u.s. intelligence committee has already concluded that russia did meddle in the 2016 white house race. official information here, there has been no evidence -- and i

repeat, no evidence of collusion between russian operatives and the trump campaign officials. that was actually used to defeat hillary clinton in the election. that is, right now, the case. if there was proof, we would report it. we are not going to exploit it, but we would report it. the problem is, though, many in the mainstream media are exploiting it. does president trump have a point? >> well, you know, the mainstream media, except for perhaps fox news and a few others, are trying to create a sinister atmosphere around this discussion. something sinister and horrible has happened, and like president trump says there's no there there. the worst thing that happened is the american people got accurate information that wasn't available to them had someone not hacked into the democratic party's campaign e-mails. so, no, this is not some crisis. but now we've with found out while looking into it that president obama has used

intelligence sources to spy on president-elect trump and then disclosed that information to the public using our own intelligence resources to attack political opponents. that's far worse than the idea that somebody disclosed what somebody else's e-mails were. julie: there were questions and there are questions and, of course, this is part of the ongoing investigation on whether that was intentional or if it just happened to be that there was surveillance being conducted and at the time they did, in fact, surveil members of the trump campaign -- >> well, there's no question about that -- julie: again, i'm just pointing out fact. >> the obama administration sicked the irs deny -- deny on republicans. this is nothing new to the obama people. julie: the fact remains that is the fbi is saying there is an ongoing investigation. they have testified there is an ongoing investigation. do they have evidence? no. but the investigation on whether

or not there was direct connection and whether it existed between campaign officials and kremlin operatives, that investigation is ongoing. and when the president's team is involved in an fbi investigation, you've got to believe that all the media have to cover it. i mean, we can't ignore a story like that. it's our duty as journalists to cover news. >> it's also, it's also important to put things in perspective, and the fact is this is so out of perspective because, again, there's no there there -- julie: right. >> there's no situation where the russians have provided secret information that's not true and that -- and shifted the election results in another way. that's not what's happening. julie: right. >> and by the way, let's just note this happens all over the world. it's not just the russians. americans and other people get involved in the elections inoth- remember, merkel herself was bugged by our government. okay? and so as long as we're not

talking about the american people, our system being compromised or the american people being given false information, this is nothing more than a distraction from the fact that the democratic party is so far to the left that they will elect some hard guy like donald trump to the presidency. julie: right. but we cannot ignore our u.s. election processing compromised, i don't care by whom -- >> i don't think it was compromised. it wasn't compromised. julie: i mean -- >> the point is, it was not compromised. the the people who won the election won the election. julie: right. >> that's not the a compromise of the system. julie: congressman rohrabacher, thank you so much. kelly. kelly: several v.a. facilities allegedly retaliating against whistleblowers. coming up, how a senator is reacting. microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease.

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and get working on our yards. scotts and miracle-gro are here to help. we make it easy to grow thick, healthy lawns, spectacular plants, and bountiful flowers. because when spring starts right, the months that follow stay perfect. load up your shed with scotts and miracle-gro. it's time to get outside. ♪ ♪ kelly: startling revelations from several v.a. hospitals across the country. fox news has discovered the v.a. has allegedly retaliated against two whistleblowers. will carr joins us live from los angeles with more. >> reporter: -- how bad alleged retaliation is against certain whistleblowers at the v.a., you need to meet dr. dale kline who may be the highest paid government employee who quite literally does nothing

every day. what is your salary? >> i make approximately $250,000 per year. >> reporter: and what are you doing right now, presently, at the v.a.? >> i sit in a chair and i look at the walls. >> reporter: that said, dr. kline is a double board-certified yale fellow who specializes in pain management at the v.a. in poplar bluff, missouri, but after becoming a whistleblower to the inspector general, court documents showed the missouri v.a. stripped kline of his duties, his clinic was shut down, and he now has to sit in an empty office every day with nothing to do. his attorney says it's all in an effort to ruin his career instead of letting dr. kline help the veterans he wants to care for. >> when are you going to actually put your money where your mouth is, stop retaliating against whistleblowers and start resolving the issue?

>> reporter: dr. kline says he can't get a private sector job right now because he hasn't seen a patient in almost a year and that could potentially force him to lose his certification. the alleged retaliation across the country so bad that senator ron johnson has stepped in on their behalf. >> i wish i could say i was shocked. it's disappointing to the point of depressing. but the fact of the matter is what the v.a. health care system is, it's a government-run, bureaucratic, single-payer health care system, and it has inherent bureaucratic problems. >> reporter: the v.a. offered a statement that says it doesn't tolerate retaliation. kelly. kelly: thank you, will. that will do it for us. the news continues. julie: i'll see you on "fox report," 7:00. arthel and eric shawn, they're next.

♪ ♪ arthel: the intelligence committee reportedly rejecting a request for immunity from general michael flynn, president trump's former national or security adviser seeking that condition in exchange for his testimony on russia and the 2016 election. welcome to a brand new hour inside "america's news headquarters," i'm arthel neville. eric: hello, everyone, i'm eric shawn. the investigations into russia have been ramping up as the ranking democrat on the committee, congressman adam schiff, gets his first look at those key documents first revealed by the republican