>> jon: weekend is coming. thank you for joining us. >> jenna: thanks, everybody. "america news hq" starts now. >> sandra: we begin with a fox news alert. president trump meeting with his national security chief, as global tensions reach new heights. hello, everyone, i'm sandra smith. a number of issues on the president's plate, including a new threat from north korea that it will, quote, reduce the u.s. to ashes. the president will likely discuss this with his national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster, who is helping craft the white house strategy in dealing with the rogue regime. and its unpredictable leader. john roberts joins us live from the north lawn. john? >> reporter: certainly no shortage of things for the president to talk to with the national security adviser about. iran, north korea will be at the top of the agenda. the president holding that meeting with the national security adviser just before he

spent some time with the prime minister of italy. you see members of the ceremonial guard behind me, preparing to welcome here to the west wing of the white house. at the same time, new saber rattling from north korea, promising a, quote, super mighty strike against the united states. in a statement in the worker's newspaper north korea saying that that attack will completely and immediately wipe out not only u.s. imperial invasion forces in south korea and its surrounding areas, but reduce the u.s. mainland to ashes. clearly, north korea does not have the capability of reducing the u.s. mainland to ashes, though it does maintain the capability to strike out hard at south korea. possibly japan as well. certainly though the real worry is that north korea could be headed in the direction of having the capability to hit the united states with a missile and

perhaps one that has a nuclear warhead on it. the past few days it has been the vice president who has been warning north korea not to launch any kind of strike against any of our allies, particularly against the united states. today it was the speaker of the house visiting england who sent the warning. also indicating that the united states has been receiving good cooperation from china on the north korean issue. >> racing toward the ability to deliver a long range nuclear weapon, that is not an acceptable outcome. so we have to do whatever it is we can do to prevent that from happening. all options need to be on the table. i'm encouraged with the engagement with the chinese. i heard that coal ships are being turned away. >> reporter: the coal is its one viable economic export. at the same time the white house has one eye on north korea, it's got the other on iran. secretary of state rex tillerson certifying that iran is in compliance with the terms of the iran deal the so called jcpoa

but again suggesting that the iran deal may be headed for the scrap heap. listen here. >> it really does not achieve the objective. it is another example of buying off a power who has nuclear ambitions. we buy them off for a short period of time and then someone has to deal with it later. we just don't see that that's a prudent way to be dealing with iran. certainly not in the context of all their other disruptive activities. >> reporter: all of this certainly will be at the top of the agenda for the press conference that the president will be having in about ten minutes of 4:rao this afternoon with the italian prime minister. we hope to get some questions to him on all of this and find out where he stands on. it >> sandra: a lot going on. john roberts, thank you. defense secretary james mattis making a stop in tell a -- tel aviv. addressing reporters on the way about last week's strike on an isis strong hold in afghanistan using the military's most powerful nonnuclear bomb.

jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. jennifer, is there a sense at the pentagon that the generals are making decision and not telling their higher ups? >> reporter: well, sandra, defense secretary mattis was asked that very question when he was in israel today. part of his week-long tour of the middle east. he was asked whether he knew that the u.s. commander in afghanistan was going to drop the 21,000-pound bomb known as the moab, or mother of all bombs. he wouldn't say. but he did say they would not assess the effectiveness of that weapon with body count. >> you all know of the kro seufrb effect of that sort of metric back in the vietnam war. it is something that's stayed with us all these years. that you don't want to start calculating things as far as what matters in the crude terms of battle casualties. frankly, digging into tunnels to count dead bodies is probably not a good use of our troops' time. >> reporter: bottom line is that

there have been a number of military actions of late that have not been briefed all the way up the chain of command and there's a sense that that needs to stop because there are strategic consequences to these military actions that some of these regional commanders are not considering, sandra. >> reporter: john roberts laid out some new threats. what is the pentagon saying about north korea today? >> reporter: they're really in a watch and wait mode. no developments on the peninsula, but all eyes are on that nuclear site where north koreans have been making preparations for what would be a sixth nuclear test. we know from u.s. defense sources that water has been pumped out of that under ground site, cables are seen going under ground that are consistent with preparations for a nuclear test. perhaps strangest of all, north korean workers have been seen playing volleyball there, as though they are killing time. north koreans are very angry that the u.s. and south korea began a new joint military air

exercise today that will last through april 28th. this is viewed by pyongyang as a provocation and threat to the regime and, frankly, could be misunderstood with tensions so high in the region. a senior u.s. defense official said they have seen greater amount of bomber activity in china in terms of alert status, but it's not clear what the so-called activity means. u.s. officials are not seeing more bomber flights but think china has put its pilots on an increased alert status. furthermore, u.s. officials say north korea warned china about a possible nuclear test by north korea on april 20th, but that deadline seems to have passed. it's now past 2:00 a.m. in pyongyang. sandra? >> sandra: jennifer griffin, thank you. joining me is steven yates. former deputy national security adviser to vice president dick cheney. steven, thank you for joining us. you just heard the reports coming out of the pentagon and the white house. first let's address china on

high alert over north korea. >> that's very important. i think this began, frankly, with the president's meeting with chinese president xi at mar a-lago which was famously interrupted by the strikes in syria. i think the president very effectively got the strategic importance of this framed up in the chinese leader's mind. i think the chinese leaders also are increasingly sensitive to the notion that their people aren't necessarily behind them in propping up this regime. their people run the risk of the fallout literally and figuratively of north korea continuing down this path. and so i think that just the strategic assessment that china has had is perhaps changing somewhat. it's been a long term project getting china to take this seriously enough to shape the outcome in a better direction. >> sandra: could i get your thought on the satellite imagery that jennifer griffin just showed us from the pentagon, showing north korea prepping for possibly another new test. it shows in that imagery

volleyball courts. as she mentioned, possibly just a way to blow by time. i don't know. what do you make of what we're seeing there? >> anyone who has followed the intelligence and assessments of north korea over time is struck by the bizarre nature of the things that they will say and the bizarre things you'll see in these images. that are so contradictory. we're coming up on a possible sixth detonation of a nuclear device is a tragic failure of policy and a major problem for counter proliferation. but yet you've got this bizarre kingdom playing volleyball while waiting around possibly for a big big test. >> sandra: let's also note the specific threats to the united states coming from north korea. north korea saying don't mess with us. warning of a super mighty strike. saying it will reduce the u.s. to ashes. >> yeah. that kind of rhetoric, you know,

it's one of the challenges we have in north korea. they say on one hand more entertaining and flamboyant things, but it's very, very threatening. they increasingly have capability to act upon it. and at the same time, you can't just sit back and assume it's all a joke. it's definitely not a joke. it's very, very dangerous. we've got joint military exercises. we have alliances that are concerned and ready to respond. and there's always the risk of miscalculation on the part of the north korean leader. and the escalate ladder there is very very stark. they may be ready to go to a level that we don't even want to contemplate. that's why i think the president was right to put alliances on notice, rebalance them, refocus them and to get under the chinese a little bit, to say this is different now. >> sandra: put that pressure on. we know that h.r. mcmaster, the president's national security adviser is meeting with president trump at the white house right now, helping him craft the strategy in all of

this. i want to read to you a quote from mark warner, the u.s. senator from virginia, the ranking democrat on the senate intel committee. he said this in a quote in "the new york times." in beijing, moscow, tehran, they are recalibrating their strategies. you can't denight because they don't have any idea how trump will respond. that might be great in the short term, he says, but it's not really a long-term strategy for asserting leadership in a world desperate for american leadership. and this is obviously speaking to -- the name of the article is bold unpredictable foreign policy lifts trump, but has risks. we heard from the president this week telling fox news he's not gonna telegraph his plans. >> well, frankly, i think that's the healthy challenge this president has put before us and before the world. some of that statement from senator warner could easily have been written in 2001 when people were drawing up theories about a cowboy from texas with swagger and a new approach to foreign

policy. so there's a lot of this that echos of the past. but frankly, we are in a tumultuous world because of a total absence of strategy for the last eight years in the obama administration. i'd give the first 100 days and the first year of a new administration some slack in pulling these pieces together and putting their own imprint and seeing if they can get different results. we're in the initial stage of this. it's unsettling stopple because it's not the warm bath of conventional thinking. but this plate is full. we are not even through the first 100 days and you are talking about moscow, tehran, beijing. these are big, big challenges for any president at any time. >> sandra: still only 90 days into this very young presidency. steven yates thank you for joining us. breaking news on this teenage girl, who vanished more than a month ago with her former teacher. we have a live update on this just ahead. plus, the cia launching an all-out manhunt for a mole within its ranks, believed to be

a double agent for wikileaks. a home is firebombed. it's caught on tape. now authorities are asking for your help in collaring these brazen suspects. we asked a group of young people when they thought they should start saving for retirement. then we asked some older people when they actually did start saving. this gap between when we should start saving and when we actually do is one of the reasons why too many of us aren't prepared for retirement. just start as early as you can. it's going to pay off in the future. if we all start saving a little more today, we'll all be better prepared tomorrow. prudential. bring your challenges. aleve with direct thertens device, a relief from lower back pain. i put it on my back. i feel this electrical pulse grabbing at my muscles. it was more powerful than i was expecting it to be. it worked. i believe aleve. learn more and read reviews at aleve.com.

authorities are searching for three suspects wanted for fire bombing a home in houston. surveillance footage shows them throwing an molatov cocktail at the front door. thankfully everyone inside the home made it out safely. crime stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. federal authorities launching an all out man hunt targeting the cia insider who funneled surveillance secrets to wiki leaks. katherine herridge is live in

washington. >> reporter: the fbi is running a counter intelligence investigation. this is one of the most sensitive probes that can be launched by the bureau. along with the fbi, they are exploring whether an insider at the agency was responsible for the theft of documents revealing the cia's most sensitive cyber tools. these records were posted by wiki leaks last month alleging the cia has the capability to exploit weaknesses in i phones and smart appliances, turning them into recording and eves dropping devices. no commenting on the authenticity of the record, cia director mike pompeo called out the website and its founder in a recent speech about u.s. national security. >> assange has created nothing of value. he relies on the dirty work of others to make himself famous. he's a fraud, a coward, hiding behind the screen. we know something about wizards hiding behind screens.

>> reporter: he made no apologies for leading edge technology and emphasized to reporters that these tools are not used by the cia against targets inside the united states. wiki leaks responded on twitter suggesting they got the records because of bad cyber hygiene and did imply that insider was involved, sandra. >> sandra: katherine, a former cia case officer is making a personal plea to president trump, who meets with the italian prime minister later today? >> reporter: that's right. former cia case officer is speaking out about her decade long ordeal after an italian court convicted her along with two dozen others connected to the 2003 u.s. government sanctioned kidnapping of the cleric omar. under president bush's program, the rendition program, omar was snatched from milan italy and flown to egypt where he said he was tortured. the evidence was weak. omar was released. but susi said she is still reliving a night mare. the trump administration

including mike -- she said she must still return to italy and likely testify before their government. >> several members have been pushing the italian intelligent services for release and declassification of documents related to this case. >> will that be damaging? >> i think it will be damaging for world countries, because at this point right now, italy, the previous prime minister ramsey asserted state secrets over everything italian, and in the u.s. everything is classified. >> reporter: the interview with brett bayer earlier today the italian prime minister was asked ab her case. he said as far as the italians are concerned he believes the issues have been resolved entirely. there seems to be daylight on the issue. >> sandra: we'll keep watching. thank you. nationwide month-long hunt for a missing teenage girl coming to an end. new details about the teen and the man that she was with.

plus republicans taking another crack at repealing and replacing obamacare. is there a compromised deal on the table? we will debate and discuss. i have spent years taking over-the-counter products

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>> sandra: a sidewalk near the white house is being closed to the public permanently. you can thank fence jumpers for that. the sidewalk along the south fence, the location that offers the iconic view of the lawn and fountain, is now permanently off limits. the red lines on the map show the old barrier. the blue lines represent the new barrier. only view of the white house south lawn now is from across

the street. all right. new reports republicans are making headway in a reviewed effort to repeal and replace obamacare. conservatives and moderates working on a compromise. house speaker paul ryan said they could be nearing a deal. >> difficult to do. we're very close. it's basically make good on the promises that were made. we want to have a system in america where everyone has affordable access to good health insurance, good health care coverage, including people with preexisting conditions. >> sandra: guy benson is political editor for town hall.com and fox news contrib e contributor and bernard whitman. what do you know about this? >> i think it's progress, but i wouldn't say there's been a break through. i spoke to a couple republican aides on capitol hill just a few minutes ago and they said no legislative text yet. they're trying to hammer out the

final details in the compromise. it might be discussed on a caucus wide conference call this coming weekend. so there are some suggestion that perhaps there could be a vote next week. there are sort of downplaying that at the leadership level. but we shall see. it seems like they are closer to getting something done or accomplished than it seemed like they might be even a week or two ago. >> sandra: bernard, according to the hill, here are some of the details of the compromise about which we are discussing. for one, states would have the option to apply for waivers to allow them to repeal one of obamacare's core protection for people with preexisting conditions called community rating. that means insurers would no longer be prevented from charging people with preexisting conditions, higher premiums because of their illness. and, the measure would also allow states to repeal obamacare's essential health benefits which mandate that insurers cover mental health and prescription drugs. these are some of the things we're learning at this point. bernard? >> so i think we're further away

from replacing and repealing obamacare than ever before. paul ryan thinks we're putting the finishing touches on it. it's a good thing that this still is probably not going to pass because it would be an absolute disaster for virtually any american. if you're a senior, your costs would rise. if you have mental health issues, you could kiss that coverage potentially good-bye. if you take prescription drugs, that coverage could be lost. if you happen to have a preexisting condition, you could be absolutely priced out of the market. this plan is actually worse than the ryan plan, the trump care plan, that only 17% of americans supported. it's no wonder that in comparison to what's on the table on the republican side, trump basically said healthcare is hard. majority, for the first time ever, 55%, a majority of americans now support obamacare and trump the democrats by 55 to 35 over the republicans. >> sandra: and what we heard from sean spicer, guy, is that the appetite to really get this

done continues to grow. but you look at the ambitious timeline, with the white house reportedly trying to get something together with the 100 day mark quickly approaching. we're at 90 today. is the timeline maybe too ambitious? >> i mean, it might be. one of the problems republicans ran into in the first part of the process was putting artificial timelines on it, saying we have to get it done by x date. it set up all this pressure and then failed. so i think they're going to probably avoid that this time around. i would just say some polls show obamacare's population has increased. others show it is a highly divisive law that is also hurting more people than it's helping. that has been the case since it was implemented. we're going to see more insurers leaving the market. they indicated that a few weeks ago. we're going to see higher premiums under obamacare. higher deduckables. the current law is failing and hurting people.

republicans promised to clean up the mess that democrats made. i applaud them for moving forward and trying to keep the promise. let's see the details of the bill once it comes forward, if i does. >> sandra: what would be the impact of another failed attempt? >> this bill is most notably damaging president trump. majority of people, according to the polls, can't govern effectively, can't solve the problems of the american people. we're at day 90. he had a contract with voters announced in october. a ten point plan he was gonna work on health care, immigration, child care, intpa structure, tax reform. he does not have a single success and likely won't at the 100 day mark, making this one of the least effective starts to a presidency in modern times. >> sandra: all right. welsh paul ryan says they're putting the finishing touches on it. we'll see if the gop can get it done at this time. terrifying moments involving georgia firefighters as a baby is tossed out of a burning window. we have more on this scary

scene. plus, a so-called dreamer facing deportation. now the judge, once singled out by president trump, is presiding. how's that gonna go? we'll debate. >> i'm just a member of a part of society, very strongly pro mexican, which is all fine. you could fill a book

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>> sandra: breaking news at this

hour. a tennessee girl who vanished more than a month ago has been found, and her former teacher is under arrest. we are expecting a briefing from investigators in about 90 minutes. patrice gallagher joins us -- trace gallagher joins us live. >> reporter: authorities say ely bet thomas is in good condition which is a major relief considering police thought she was in grave danger. they were working under the theory that her alleged kidnapper and former teacher, tad cummins was unstable and armed with two weapons. the two were found inside a house in a town called cecilville up in california, about 120 miles south of the oregon border. it all started when someone spotted a vehicle that matched the amber alert. here's the sheriff spokes person. listen. >> we went ahead and sent a deputy out and the people didn't have license plates on it, so our deputy ran the vin and the

vin number sure enough came back to tad cummins vehicle. >> reporter: and they went to the house. cummins gave up without a fight. news conference is set for 4 p.m. eastern time. the 15-year-old was allegedly kidnapped in tennessee on march 13th, the last time the two were seen together was on this wal-mart surveillance video in oklahoma on march 15th, two days later. so the tennessee bureau of investigation figure they could be anywhere. tad cummins was elizabeth thomas science teacher. a month before the abduction, a student at the school said he saw cummins kiss her in a classroom. the student notified administrators but it took a few weeks of investigating before cummins was suspended and fired. cummins denied kissing the girl, saying he was more of a father figure. the 15-year-old said that he was a friend and counselor and that he calmed her anxiety. the girl's parents didn't find out about the kiss until the week after it happened. they remain furious about how

the school handled the situation, though they are elated, as you might imagine, now that their daughter has been found and that she is fine. news conference in about 90 minutes. >> sandra: we'll stay on it. trace gallagher, thank you. same judge involved in the trump university lawsuit now handling the case of the first so-called dreamer so face deportation under president trump. william, is the 23-year-old who filed this lawsuit a not? >> reporter: well, he was a legitimate dreamer with a permit that protected him from deportation until the administration said he crossed into mexico without permission. and in doing that, he lost his legal protection. but there is a controversy about the facts in this case. so, under daca, undocumented youth brought here as children, can work and go to school without fear of being deported. the permit has to be renewed every two years. the rules say you cannot leave the country.

well, this man claims he was having lunch with a friend on the u.s. side of the border when he was accosted by a border patrol agent. he was not allowed to retrieve his id from the car. he was deported. homeland security said that version of the defense is a total lie. in fact, it said, i'm quoting, there are no records or evidence to support montaz claim he was detained or taken to the mexico border of entry. instead, it said he was already in mexico when they caught him later trying to speak into the u.s. by climbing over a fence. so, if so, that would mean, sandra, that montes lost his daca status the moment he went to mexico. >> sandra: very important details. thank you. some background on the judge. he's the son of mexican immigrants whose parents came with an elementary school education. he spent 17 years in california before being nominated to the district court judge by president obama. that was back in november 2011.

he was confirmed ten months later. he is an immigration attorney. the principle at command consulting group and former chief of staff for u.s. customs and border protection. all right. i'll start with you first, francisco. what about legalities here? you heard all the details involved in this case. but bottom line, this man was a dreamer until he crossed over into mexico without permission and then he lost that protection. >> if he crossed, he crossed. i'll bet there's flinn of surveillance video that we will see if he crossed or didn't cross. there's no more protected video area than the border check points. but that's beside the fact. the fact that we're talking about a judge, federal judge, that was confirmed by a republican senate, mind you, after 2011, but what happened to president trump's ten point plan? the anchor, the sacred cow of his candidacy was to reform

immigration number one start building the wall on this channel. i offered to come down to start help him build the wall as long as we did the ten point plan. where did it go? >> sandra: i want to roll some sound from susan collins, main gop senator. she talked about how she agreed with trump's policy, but she finds this in contradiction to his own policy, talking about not supporting illegal immigration and children's rights. watch this. >> i'm troubled by it. it seems to me that if a child is brought here by his parents, that that child really didn't have any say in the decision to come here. i don't support illegal immigration, but that isn't the child's fault. >> sandra: you know, and she went on to say, thad, but it does seem to contradict the president's own policy because he, too, has expressed sympathy for children who were brought

here and in some cases, know no other language. >> i don't know if senator collins had all the facts that were just articulated that, in fact, this individual had status, had left the country, perhaps without following the process torque get permission in advance. that's not unique to dreamers. that's true for any lawful per permanent resident. i don't think it represents any change in policy or the expressions that the president has made or secretary kelly about dreamers or daca participants not being an enforcement priority. what they have never said is when we encounter somebody in the course of our normal duties, whether they're daca or any other status who may be here illegally, that we're not going to do our job. they've been very clear about that from the candidacy to when the administration took over that when our agents and officers on the front line encounter people, they're going

to enforce the laws that are on the book. daca is also not the law. it was an obama executive order. so to the extent that the under lying immigration laws still apply here, in the case of this individual who maybe violated the status he was temporarily granted, there's no change in policy and no change in the law. >> sandra: but you did hear a change in tone from the president since taking office. he said he would end the program. but he said daca is a very difficult subject for me, i will tell you. i'm sure you remember that moment. >> exactly. the bottom line is the legal point that if president obama's executive order was not valid because they claim he didn't have the authority to do it, then how could you revoke an invalid order? so in order to revoke it, he would have had to recognize that he did have the executive power to create that order. all of this really just detracts from congress, the senate and the house, democrat and republican, from their failure

to pass immigration reform. good, bad or ugly, just do something. we've been clam moring for 17 years on this topic. >> sandra: i'll let you have the last word, thad. if you could comment on the judge presiding over this case and how that's gonna go. >> i don't think it's going to have any effect. federal judges are held to a very high standard by their colleagues, by themselves, about not demonstrating bias. the fact that then candidate trump criticized this judge, if he thinks that's going to have a bearing on his judgment, that he can't be completely independent and view the facts of this case on the merits, he should recuse himself. there's an appeals process after this potentially if need be. i don't think that's going to be a factor. >> sandra: it's a complicated case and a lot of details yet to still be learned about it. thank you for joining us. be sure to tune in to the first 100 days tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern time for more on the immigration debate. martha will be joined by john

kelly as well as jeff sessions. a georgia firefighter makes a life saving catch while on the job. video showing the moment the hero catches a baby thrown from the second story of a burning apartment building. the firefighter was one of the first to arrive on the scene. he said he told the father to drop the baby and that he would catch him. and he kept his promise. the new england patriots are calling out "the new york times" after the paper tweeted this image. comparison of two images, i should say. why the super bowl champs say there's more to this story than meets the eye. plus, voters greeting president trump in a series of online polls. we'll show you where the president is getting high marks and where there's room for improvement.

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>> president trump getting ready to meet with italy's prime minister. the two leaders are set to hold a joint news conference live in the next hour. we'll have live coverage. we're all learning that the president is setting the stage for some big potential battles before he hits 100 days in office. word of potential fights over the border wall idea. and a government shutdown? round two on health care? they're busy and we will be, too, on shepard smith reporting. >> sandra: president trump getting mixed reviews on his job performance. an online survey showing just 16% of americans give the president an a on overall performance. 23% a b. 17% a c. 13% a d and 24% a failing grade. amonth trump voters 32% give him an a. 42% a b. 23% a c or worse. megan mccarthy is the co-founder

and chief content officer for morning consult. it's fair to say it's still early on, just 90 days in. so far this is a look at the grade. would you say that he is doing a good job for those who support him and overall for all americans. >> thank you for having me on. i think the president is definitely satisfying his base, as you mentioned, he is getting mostly a's and b's from the people who voted for him. but the people who didn't vote for him, they're much more intensity giving him an f. so he has room to grow for picking that up. >> >> sandra: his best grades are coming in terms of fighting terrorism. 49d% gave him an a or b. and his worst grades are on health care. room for improvement there. just 25% give him an a or b. while 47% give him a d or worse. >> yes.

so i think those grades make a lot of sense in some ways. you can see reflecting where the president has taken decisive action and ordering air strikes in syria versus republicans not being able to deliver yet on their promise to repeal and replace obamacare. >> sandra: as far as foreign policy is concerned, you have seen an uptick in overall approval ratings in the face of recent actions he had taken and americans do favor diplomacy in dealing with north korea. 79% support diplomatic efforts to get north korea to suspend its nuclear program. 65% support stopping and searching north korean ships. 43% support air strikes. 25% support sending in ground troop troops. >> this is an interesting point. 80% of people, overwhelming majority, would prefer a diplomatic approach. we asked ab syria and we found almost double the amount of people would support ground troops there.

not just the same mind set for north korea. >> sandra: that's a very fair point to make. thank you so much for joining us. good to have you, megan mccarthy. >> thank you so much. >> sandra: sometimes a picture says 1,000 words. sometimes it may not tell the whole story. why the president is calling out "the new york times" for what he says is a political hit job. you don't let anything keep you sidelined. that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you.

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>> sandra: hundreds of u.s. and romanian troops joining forces for a live fire exercise as part of operation atlantic resolve. the drill featuring tanks and aviation forces took place in a blizzard. the increased american presence is aimed at easing concerns among our allies in eastern europe. in the face of increasing aggression by russia.

new york city mayor bill deblasio looking to raise the price of cigarettes in the city to $13 a pack. smokes currently cost a minimum of $10.50 per pack. the national average for a pack, $5.51. the price hike would make the big apple the most expensive place in the nation to buy a pack of cigarettes. that's almost three times the cost of an average pack. "new york times" causing quite a stir after tweeting these two photos comparing president trump's meeting yesterday with the patriots to president obama's meeting with the team back in 2015 showing the stark contrast. but now the new eng patriots are calling "the times" out. fox news headlines 24/7 is here to discuss. >> pretty big mistake by "the new york times." the patriots were at the white house celebrating their big super bowl victory. like you just saw "the new york

times" tweeted out a comparison photo that appears to show a whole lot more people surrounding president trump in 2015 than were is your -- rather president obama in 2015 than president trump yesterday. well, you know -- by the way, that picture was retweeted about 50,000 times so it was making the rounds on social media. >> sandra: the president retweeted it. >> not so fast. the patriots actually issued an official correction on that picture. they tweeted these photos lack context. fact, in 2015, over 40 football staff were on the stairs. in 2017 they were seated on the south lawn. that picture comparison right there was completely inaccurate. >> sandra: i can hear our viewers at home. can we just leave politics out of sports? >> exactly. to break down the real numbers of who was there and who wasn't there yesterday. patriots say that in 2015, 50 players were at the white house ceremony. yesterday, 34 players were at the white house ceremony.

but the size of the total delegation with staff included were roughly the same. a patriots spokes person actually said that's pretty understandable because when you win two super bowls in three years, not every player is gonna show up. so he said this to "the boston globe." he said, it's a cool thing you do once. maybe you do it twice. it's just not necessarily something you choose to do every time. we had people today who were at fending funeral, who were sick. it wasn't political, like you just said, sandra, it's just life. >> sandra: i get invited to the white house, i go. >> i know, right. >> sandra: sounds like the white house spokes person -- or that was a spokes person for the team, right? >> yes. >> sandra: we've been here before. >> we've been here before. whoa is me. tough life. of course the president tweeted about this earlier. the failing new york times just got caught in a big lie concerning the new england patriots visit to the white house. i gotta say, man, if "the new

york times" sports editor, he knows he made a mistake. >> sandra: there's an apology from "the new york times?" >> they issued a pretty lengthy apology to yahoo! news. he said, bad tweet by me. terrible tweet. i wish i could say it's complicated, but, no, this one is pretty straight forward. i'm an idiot. when we learned more, we tried to fix everything. at that point the damage was done. like i said, 50,000 retweets. lot of people saw it. lot of people believed it. not true. >> sandra: the new england patriots did not like that at all. they got very active when they put that out. always good to see you. >> you, too. >> sandra: check this out. former senator bob dole is on his way to georgia for a trip 73 years in the making. dole tweeted this photo with popcorn in hand a short time ago. he will visit the national imagery museum at ft. bening where he trained back in 1944.

the oklahoma republican, a two-time purple heart and bronze star recipient fought in world war ii. all right. we are keeping an eye on 1600 pennsylvania avenue. president trump set to welcome the prime minister of italy in just a few moments. we will bring that to you live when it happens. plus this -- oh, wow. okay. that was not fireworks. i was watching that with you all. what a dog did to set off an explosion in its own living room. [waitress] more coffee? [student] yeah, thanks. [student] oh yeah for sure... [waitress] yeah ok [student] i can just quit school and get a job. [ex student] its okay daddy's here.

[wife] daddy [wife] hi [dad] hey buddy [son] hey dad [wife] i think we can do this. [dad] really? [chancellor] adam baily. [chancellor] adam baily.

>> sandra: it's a rough job being a dog. i said that. this pooch finding out the cost of curiosity the hard way after getting ahold of his master's e cigarette. whoa! the pup is just fine. a bit shocked.

the same can't be said about the living room. the owner startled awake by the commotion. how is a dog supposed to know smoking is bad for you? he's fine. i'm sandra smith. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 at the white house where president trump is waiting to welcome italy's prime minister and getting ready for a news conference during this hour. we expect to hear about an upcoming summit because russia has been excluded for bad behavior. we could hear about moscow's latest moves to protect bashar al-assad. and plus, with a possible government shut down looming next week, the white house looks to make some big moves. making plays to get money for a southern border wall and for the military while republican lawmakers are pushing a new plan to overall