sergeant. >> chris: that never gets old. thank you, sergeant, for your service and welcome home. this is "special report." tomorrow night, bret interviews malcom turnbull. i am chris wallace in washington. "the story" with martha maccallum is next. ♪ ♪ >> if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. period. if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. period. >> we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it. [applause] >> martha: we are a number that moment but then came the campaign of 2016, and the g.o.p. tried to undo that. >> one of the true staples of my campaign, and i say to our

campaign, repeal and replace obamacare. [cheers and applause] >> martha: that was october of 2016. up at the first round as repealing and replacing commode was retched to a vote basically crashed before takeoff. >> i am disappointed because we could have had it. i am disappointed. a little surprised because we really had it. it was pretty much their within grasp. i will tell you what will come out of it is a better bill. >> martha: we will see. good evening, everyone. i am martha maccallum. it is may the fourth. this is "the story." the bill passed the house today, it's week by with a one-vote margin. the white house rail the democrats for spiking the football on the spending bill. the president was clearly in a good mood. to speak of how my doing? in my doing okay? hey, i am president. can you believe it?

>> martha: how can you believe it? the first step, barely about one fire, has to go to the senate, they are all talking about what kind of bell they were created. then, the adoption process, then, only if it gets that far, the signature by the president. for my scoreboard perspective, today was probably one of the best, if not the best day for president trump. the first leg of repeal and replace, the spending bill that is on its way to his desk to be signed, and he got an executive order boosting religious liberty in this country. we'll talk about that in a moment. we could hear more about those wins and moments from now, there is a look at the uss intrepid, the airspace museum where president trump is expected to take the stage any moment from now for the first time you send back to new york since he became president of the united states. tonight, they will commemorates the 75th anniversary of the battle of the coral sea. moments from now, we will talk to the congressman who got the job done today.

house minority whip steve scalise. first, peter doocy joins us now. peter. >> martha, we just focus some of the republican lawmakers as they were getting off the buses that had taken them to that rose garden celebration today. we really got a sense that these members are trying to make the good feeling they got from this bill passage last as long as possible. >> you just got back from the white house. was it peer celebration or was there much talk behind closed doors about what has to happen next? >> not a lot of that with this group. not a lot of talk about what has to happen next. it was messaging to the american people about exactly what we had done today. >> and the people working at the white house right now are getting a lot of credit from lawmakers who crafted this legislation, like oregon congressman greg walden. >> i will tell you, this administration was more hands on it helping us get this done than any i have ever seen in all the years i have been here.

so, i think they made a big difference. >> but he admits that this is just to the first step. other steps before president trump's desk are the senate, where it will be changed, then, it will bounce around until both jean chambers agree. senator lindsey graham has already tweeted, a bill finalized yesterday has not been scored, and my mom allowed, and three hours final debate should be viewed with caution. and senator john mccain doesn't like that the house doesn't know how much their own health care bill costs. they voted before the congressional budget office put a price tag on it. >> i don't approve of it. whatever they want to do. they spend their time criticizing me, so, -- [laughs] >> there were conflicting reports today, this afternoon, about a big celebration for republicans here at the capital. republican congressman john duffy told me on his way out of the house chamber that he heard there was going to be champagne

at some point. we haven't seen any champagne, we haven't heard any bottles popping. it appears that most members just headed right to the airport for another recess. martha. >> martha: thank you very much, peter. joining me now, the congressman responsible for making sure that this bill had enough votes to pass, the house majority whip, steve scalise. good to see you today, sir. welcome. >> good to be with you, martha. >> congratulations. this is something you were working on that you achieved it today. we saw kevin mccarthy stand up and say this is the guy who never gave up on this process. i think everyone would like you to take us behind the scenes that show us how the sausage was made. what was it like? >> it was a lot of work. like all of our members in the republican caucus, working really hard to try to get to yes. we still have more work to do a few weeks ago. we would have liked to seen the bill passed sooner. they must abort the thing is getting it right. fulfilling this promise, starting the the dash repealind

replacing obamacare. we work very closely with president trump. he was engaged when the very beginning. vice president pence was very hands-on. our teams worked well together. ultimately, every change you made to the bill over the last few weeks, we are focused on lowering premiums and bringing more members on board that weren't there. we had a lot of cooperation. it was difficult. i always set from the beginning, failure is not an option. this is too important to the people that elected us, that want relief from obamacare. we had to get this done. i am glad we are able to pass it to the house, goes to the senate. there is more work to do. i really feel good about where we are in our ability to get this on president trump's desk. >> martha: tell me about this. the house that it's job on this bill, but now there is a long, arduous process ahead. we know that it is going to look very different when it gets over to the senate side. do you think it will pass and what kind of changes do you expect to see? >> for all the people that said

it couldn't pass the house, i always knew that we had a path to get it out of the house and it wouldn't be easy. i also knew that it was going to take a lot of work. that is why we are here, that is why we ran. i already talked to john cornyn, the senate majority whip. he is already working on what they need to do in the senate to put a similar coalition together to pass the bill where they can only lose two senators over there. that means vice president pence will break the tie. they know -- >> martha: i want to give you some news that we just got. word is just breaking that the senate says they will basically come up with their own legislation and that they will incorporate parts of yours. what do you say about that? >> i know we have been working with them every step of the way. they have been following what we have been doing at the changes we made. we have to check with the senate because a lot of the limitations of this budget reconciliation process that allows you to pass this bill will 51 votes in the senate, means you have to work with the senate.

if they can make more improvements to the bill, i am all for that. we will continue to improve this process. we'll see what they change and if it's better. if not, we'll go to our conference committee. our goal is to get a bill on the president's desk that lowers premiums and puts patients back in charge of their health care decisions. >> martha: how important was it that the g.o.p. was getting so much criticism for having the house, the senate, and the white house, not being able to get anything done? did that help you guys because you were sort of getting hammered for that? >> we were focused from the beginning on making sure we did get it done. like you said, when you have the house and senate and white house, failure is not an option. you've got to get it done. we've got to follow through. i think you saw out of focus all the way through. there were times of people could have given up on the process and we never did. we knew we had to get this done for a lot of reasons. the main one is because we promised people we would give them relief from obamacare. you saw that coalescing, you saw that from members from all different factions come together. it was a really healthy process.

it took time, i took over a year before obamacare got on president obama's desk. just a few weeks, we are able to get this moved through the house, that brings it to the next step. providing relief for those families. >> martha: lots of steps to go. we will see. steve scalise, thank you very much. good to see you, sir. flipping houseboats for this bill was a bit of an uphill battle. lawmakers are now racing for the arrival of ferris and mcconnell streamer. watch. >> i ask you, my colleagues, just child care lower health costs? just trumpcare provide better health care? does trumpcare protect seniors and families? >> are we going to meet this test? are we going to be men and women of our word? are we going to keep the promises that we made? or are we going to falter?

no. [applause] >> martha: democracy in action. joining me now, political editor at townhall.com and fox news contributor. a former dnc senior advisor. welcome. having both of you tonight. i want to start with a sound bite from kevin mccarthy at the white house today. let's play that. >> mr. president, i want to thank you. i have only been through a few presidents, but i have never seen someone so hands on. >> martha: so, what do you make of the process so far and the president's involvement in a? does g.o.p. come out looking good after this or is it too early to say? >> too early to say and the long-term. in the short term, this is a an important step. i likened it earlier to a first down on the football field, but

not a touchdown yet, with a long way to go, as you just discussed with congressman scalise. the president deserves a fair amount of credit here. he was very hands-on, as was his vice president, mike pence, who really kick started what looked like a dead process just a few weeks ago, getting the two sides together. now, things move on to the u.s. senate, which is an entire different bottle of soda, or ball of wax, whatever metaphor you want to make. we will see i think some significant changes. >> martha: a tear from nancy pelosi today after this. here she is. >> this vote will be tattooed to them, as they also said, they will glow-in-the-dark. >> martha: they are going to glow-in-the-dark. it is so toxic that people will be glowing in the dark and have tattoos blazoned across our heads. some pretty gruesome stuff. >> i agree with guy. donald trump owns this. mike pence owns this. every house republican who has voted for this piece of legislation owns it. they will have to campaign on it.

democrats plan to campaign on this, as well. they voted to cut people's medicaid, they voted to allow insurance companies to raise premiums on seniors, on cancer survivors come on people with diabetes come on pregnant women. i mean, this is a bad bill. it is so bad that the senate won't even -- >> martha: lesser member of the fact that obamacare in and of itself that a ton of damage to the democratic party. if they lost a ton of seats based on obamacare and they may have indeed lost the presidential election because it was in october that we saw the premiums come out and people looked at them and were aghast and so, obamacare has not been particularly good for democrats. guy, what you make of the assessment that this will be very rough and there are some prognosticators who are already shifting their numbers for republicans based on this today? >> what we have seen, not just going back to october, as you mentioned with a double-digit premium increases in obamacare, and providers pulling out of a bunch of markets across the country, that bad news continues

today in virginia, and iowa. obamacare is feeling badly and harming people. the republicans it said we are going to fix this mess, the democrats, 100% made on their own, obamacare. i think that the vote today, as i said, is a step. what was passed today isn't going to be the law. there are concerns, policywise and process wise, that i have with the bill right now. there are still two or three significant iterations to come of this process and what will matter is the final result. do they get it done? does it help people and fix the obamacare problem? >> martha: that is so true. if people do start to see some downward momentum or even just of their premiums are staying the same, they are not getting higher, as they become used to it, or maybe they get a little bit more choice with their doctors or maybe a few more plans arrive in their state where there was only one before, perhaps that is the reason that charles schumer and nancy pelosi have been so apoplectic about this movement on this front. >> martha: >> let's be clear.

the reason why the insurance companies have been piling out of the market is because of the uncertainty that had been created by donald trump and the republicans, as well as the attempts to sabotage this law, including the beginning of this year. any issue that you are seeing right now, just look at donald trump's tweets over the past couple of months. he is articulating that he is actively trying to sabotage this law. that is the reason why you are seeing that. >> no. i reject that. we have seen providers pulling out of markets for years now. the reason is, the risk pools aren't sustainable read it's not financially sustainable for the companies. that continues to be the case because obamacare was a terrible law that was shoddily written and isn't working or fulfilling his promises. the republicans are sabotaging the law by allowing it to play out under its own terms, which was written 100% by the democratic party. >> martha: we got to go. we got to leave it there. thank you very much. good to see about tonight. breaking as well, you are

looking at new york city, where there are protests on one side of the uss intrepid come on the other side, president trump expected to make some remarks. we will take you there when that happens. he's back in new york for the very first time since he became president. a stunning new report about the vote, growth of surveillance under the obama administration. we will tell you about this bike. what did it mean? what were they up to? what about susan rice? marc thiessen and juan williams are not paid a victory for religious liberty in america has president trump signs april executive order giving religious organizations more latitude in political speech. what does that mean we go to church on sunday? pastor robert jeffress was there for this. he is coming up right after the break. >> we will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore. ♪ are allergies holding you back?

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he arrives amidst the protests that you can see on the street, across the street from where the intrepid's. we will keep an eye on that situation i bring you the president's remarks when he gets to the podium. we'll take you there live. ♪ >> i would like to thank the evangelical and religious community. our laws prevent you from speaking our minds from your own pulpits. i am going to work very hard to repeal that language and to protect free speech for all americans. >> martha: that was at the convention last summer. president trump pledging to get rid of a law that blocks religious institutions from taking politics to the pulpit. this morning on the 66th annual national day of prayer, the president made good on that pledge. he signed an executive order appealing the so-called johnson amendment. >> free speech does not end at the steps of a cathedral or a

synagogue or any other house of worship. with this executive order, we also make clear that the federal government will never, ever penalize any person for their protected religious beliefs. >> martha: pastor robert jeffress is senior pastor at the first baptist church in dallas and a fox news contributor. he was of the president of the rose garden today. good to see you this evening. obviously, evangelicals came out and support very strongly for the president in this election. but there were moments during the campaign, especially during debate, when he was asked about religious liberty is in his answers were sort of vague on the ice spent a lot of time with him today. do you believe that he has more conviction about these issues now, if so, why? >> i think he is always had conviction about these issues. i have known him for two years. i was with him yesterday in the oval office for a private meeting before a dinner last night.

his positions remain steadfast. martha, what has led to this is the president knows that it's absolutely wrong for government to be assaulting people's religious liberty. they ought to be protecting it instead. i think that today is historic. today marks the beginning of the end of government's 60-year-old war against religious liberty. we are ready for that to happen. i mean, whenever you have an atlanta fire chief losing his job for publishing a book supporting traditional marriage, or you have the little sisters of the poor, who were here today, who were being assaulted by the obama administration, something is wrong. the president recognize that. he vowed to do something to change it. >> martha: i want to get your reaction to this. the aclu put out a statement that they called the whole thing at the white house today and elaborate photo op. they said that after careful review, we determined that the order does not meaningfully alter the ability of religious institutions or individuals to intervene the political process. it pretends to but does not harm

the provision of reproductive health services. are they right or wrong? >> i think they're wrong. i think today's executive order was a giant step. i look at it, martha, more as a compost on a road map. i think there are more to come. i think it is saying we are changing the direction of government. its attitude towards religion, we are doing a giant u-turn. we will start protecting religious liberty instead of assaulting it. that is what was historic about today. by the way, martha -- >> martha: hold that thought, i went to bring on reverend barry lynn, executive director of americans united for separation of church and state. let's pull up this pew poll, it says during political elections, should churches come out in favor of one candidate over another? they say, should not, 66% they should not come out from the pulpit to endorse a candidate. reverend lynn, what are your

thoughts and all of this? >> frankly, what was happening today was a profound, on the part of president trump, to describe what he wants to do, now, he can't repeal the statute that is in the law. it would require the congress. i do think he made it very clear that he believes there is some attack on religion. i can tell you, there has never been in the history of this country, any pastor, any rabbi, who has been penalized by the federal government, not during the last administration, not so far in this administration, for what she or he said from the pulpit about any controversial issue. you can be pro-choice. you can be antiwar. you can be on the opposite side of those very issues. no one has ever been penalized. the only restriction in the so-called johnson amendment is that you can convert your church or synagogue into what amounts to a political action committee.

you can't cross the line and endorse or oppose candidates for public office. when the president said today, there is no free speech for churches, may be hasn't been enough churches lately. >> martha: just ten seconds, pastor jeffress. quick answer. >> i want to remind barry lynn that he sent me a letter 20 years ago threatening my church's tax-exempt status, not because i endorsed a particular candidate, but because they stood against an issue that was a moral issue in our community. government has no business policing speech from the pulpit. mack. that is against the first amendment. >> you did endorsed candidates. >> martha: we will leave her there. thank you, gentlemen. still ahead -- there is a look at the intrepid on the right-hand side of your screen. on the left, there are protesters. the president was speaking just a few minutes. we will take you there live as soon as i get underway. first, susan rice has said that she refuses that testify in front of the senate committee just one day before we got new numbers are showing that there

was actually a huge fight in surveillance of american citizens towards the end of the obama administration. marc thiessen and juan williams break it down for us next. ♪ [wife] hi [dad] hey buddy [son] hey dad [wife] i think we can do this. [chancellor] adam baily. [chancellor] adam baily. ♪ ♪

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♪ >> is it fair to say that very

few people could make requests for unmasking? i can't make that request, as a senator. >> sure, it's a fairly group, the consumers, which i am, of that a small set -- speak at the national security council within that group that can make this request or do you know? i think the national security pfizer surely can. >> martha: that was fbi director james comey at a humored on my key ring yesterda. the unnamed national security advisor is susan rice, over her role in requesting unmasking trump associates. congressman trey gowdy made clear that there are other ways of getting her the witness chair. >> congress don't pick witnesses, lawyers from pick witnesses, the fact that their witnesses. whether she likes it or not, she is really important fact witness. >> martha: fox news chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge's is here to tell us about where the story goes from here.

>> the fbi director of the head of nsa were back on the hill for a classified session, dealing with a 2-month-old request for record showing who's communications were swept up during foreign surveillance, and who in the last administration had access to american names. with the new republican leading to house russia case, an effort to put political differences to one side. >> i want to come out and we have had a very successful hearing and i appreciate you guys being here. we will be issuing a written statement with more details shortly. >> the witnesses were valuable in producing additional insights to us. >> this new report released by the u.s. government chose a spike in searches of the national security agency's database under president obama. this covers signals intelligence, such as phone calls, text messages, and emails. in 2016, there were more than 30,000 searches for information about americans who's

communications were picked up accidentally. if those numbers are presented nearly 28% jump over 2015. three times as many searches as the year before that. critics of the obama white house say it is more circumstantial evidence that during an election year, there was an unprecedented effort to gather information and circulate reports about american citizens. mr. obama supporter saying the laws were broken and with precious modeling, this should amount to do diligence. >> martha: thank you. here with more, marc thiessen, former speech writer for george w. bush. and juan williams, cohost of "the five" ." gentlemen, welcome. good have you here. juan, do you think susan rice should testify? >> at this point, her argument is that because a democrat on the senate intelligence committee did not request, said that he thought it would be a distraction, a political move by the republican majority on the committee, she decided not to testify, not to participate.

>> martha: marc, does not hold water? >> i spent seven years working on capitol hill and that is not how it works, juan. they don't have to have bipartisan agreement on witnesses. the chairman can call whoever they want, the democrats could call whoever they want, and they have to testify. the reality is, that is a big back fire for her. number one, her excuse for not testifying is that yet another susan rice misstatement, the woman who told us that benghazi was because of an internet video, that syria gave up with chemical weapons, she said i don't know anything about it when the unmasking came up. she has been dishonest. now, graham is going to hold the committee hearing just on her. and just on unmasking. instead of being part of a larger one, let's spend three hours talking about you and your record. >> i don't think she will have any trouble. the way that you posted, it seems to me went way off the target. the question on the table, while you susan rice deciding if

testify? she feels this is a political game, not speaking to the facts. the question in part is why was the spike in terms of her surveillance? >> martha: the question -- the reason why she went testify goes back to the basic underpinning of all of this, which is that there was this enormous spike. we also know that the obama administration, towards the end of their time, change the rules to dramatically lower the bar in terms of who was allowed to look at all of this intelligence. as "the new york times" story documented, they wanted to push the word out there is much as they could about these trump transition officials because they believed they were in cahoots with russia. she believes that there was a legitimate reason to do all of that. why doesn't he have to testify and go before congress and explain what they are thinking was? marc and then juan. >> she doesn't want to explain it because it would look really bad for them. no one has yet explained why susan rice, as national security

advisor, to unmasking official, you have to provide a national security rationale for why you need that information. james, he might have a national security rationale because i am investigating this person. susan rice is in investigating anybody. she is the national security council advisor. why does she need to know? >> come on, marc. marc, you are witness number one for susan rice. she was a national security advisor! she is in charge of informing the president -- she is in charge of making sure the president of the united states is fully aware of threats to our national security. if you have an increased, whether it is from wikileaks or from the russians, or anyone else trying to influence an american election, hacking into our political structure, i would think that it's a good reason for her to make a request. remember, she does not make the determination. she has to make a request. its people and the intelligence agency who say yes, she is

justified in seeking this information. >> martha: marc, why did they give her a pass? why did they think there was a legitimate reason? >> first of all, i think it would be great if susan rice went to capitol hill and said that. bye is she afraid to testify, juan? there is no rational to get this information. the other question is, with martha raise, they were lowering the bar for sharing this stuff. we had a junior official in the pentagon, saying they were spreading misinformation around, about who was being monitored and what information they had because they were afraid the trump campaign would destroy this intelligence. who was this spread with? who was this information shared with? >> that's a different issue in terms of spreading around her leaving breadcrumbs. what we are talking about is whether the intelligence agencies lowered the bar is in terms of who they granted acces access. >> martha: they are connected to because the reason that the bar was lowered was that so information could get out to

people. they were in a panic that the russians had taken over the trump campaign and there is all the stuff going back and forth. >> that explains why you had to surveillance taking place. >> martha: we got to leave it there. thank you, very much. good to see you as always. president trump was returning home tonight to new york for the first time since becoming president. any moment now, we expect him to step in front of that podium at the uss intrepid, which is an amazing museum, right here on the hudson river. he is there tonight. we'll take you there live as well coming up. also, coming up, late night host stephen colbert said he would change a few words from his anti-trump grand that got him a lot of heat this week. but did not back away from the meaning of the message. his is just the latest in a long line of comedians who seem to have lost, some say, their sense of humor when it comes to the president. raising the question, who took the fun out of late-night? howard kurtz joins us. ♪ >> you attract more skinheads than free rogaine. you have more people marching against you then cancer. in fact, the only thing your

mouth is good for is being flat amend putin's lee polster. hey, i've got the trend analysis. hey. hi. hi. you guys going to the company picnic this weekend? picnics are delightful. oh, wish we could. but we're stuck here catching up on claims. but we just compared historical claims to coverages. but we have those new audits. my natural language api can help us score those by noon. great. see you guys there. we would not miss it.

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♪ >> martha: people are able to say this about anything these days. that was the response from the fcc chairman of all people, he offered that after a late show host stephen colbert's ranted against donald trump, which caused controversy this week, late-night has always been a place for a president can expect some jabs. but the tone across the board has changed so much that we wanted to take a look back at how we got here. >> can you believe a drug scandal of the white house? that is the only high the carter administration has had an 18 months. >> this is my daily rate from one of my top foreign policy advisors. >> governor, once again, the category is world leaders. >> what is it about new york that you think it requires the most immediate attention? >> the new york knicks. >> it won't take that as an opportunity to make that a bunch

of [bleep] jokes. i'm just saying that donald trump doesn't want to be slapped with soft canadian water. >> the only thing your mouth is good for is for being vladimir putin's [bleep] holster. >> here now, his thoughts on all of us, fox news channel's howie kurtz. good to see you tonight. i remember seeing the jerry ford to jokes where he kept bumping his head all the times on thing things. it was always a little bit more in good fun. i'm sure that in those times, we would see some of this and think, oh, my goodness, heater said that about the presidents. that has gone to a whole new place. i am curious about what you think is a media observer, an expert media observer, about why that is, and how we come up there. >> the culture used to be somewhat tamer. guys like johnny carson and jay leno would poke fun at republicans and democrats. you didn't know if they had an ideology. now, and the trump era, we saw just a little bit of that, it is like everyone is competing to be on the same trump-bashing

channel. even colbert is leading the pack, that is how he dug himself out of last place. you have samantha be, who was down here in washington to stage an anti-trump show, the night of the white house correspondents dinner, john oliver, trevor noah, trying to get out of the shadow of jon stewart. everybody except jimmy fallon seems to think they can play to half the country, the half that they think doesn't like this president. >> martha: let's take a look at stephen colbert's response last night. here's what he said. >> i had a few choice insults for the president in return. i don't regret that. i believe he can take care of himself. i have jokes, he has the launch codes. so, a fair fight. while i would do it again, i would change a few words that were cruder than they needed to be preheated >> martha: what do you think about that? >> the only words that stephen colbert should have added, were i am sorry, to that

lame nonapology, and which he seemed to be doubling down on what was a gratuitously offensive joke about the president of united states. he has a talented comedian. i have been on the air with him. this was beneath him. by the way, cbs also needs to address whether it should allow this kind of garbage on the air because it's a pretaped show. some suit at cbs thought it was okay to air. it wasn't something about was blurted out. it was scripted. >> martha: i think that some people would say we got to this sort of dialogue, the president helped us get here. some of the vulgarity that he has spoken the past, that was well documented during the course of the selection, is part of what put us in a dialogue that we are in right now. is this fair or not fair? >> certainly come a president trump during the campaign did a lot of finger in the eye insults. you could say that especially on twitter, that added to the tone, the adversarial tone we have now. i think regardless of what you

think about donald trump, whether you think he is a great president or a terrible president, you have to respect the office. >> martha: what about defacing the nation, and? what you think about that? >> when the president said he faced the nation and he got into a scrap with john dickerson? the president is entitled to defend himself in an aggressive interview. i think john dickerson did his job. i think there is something about the tone and the very highly personal nature of it. trump can take care of himself, colbert is right. he can give it back where it a perfect example, jimmy cannell has his incredibly heartfelt monologue about his son almost dying, and yet, he needed to throw in a swipe at trump and a pitch for obamacare. it is all becoming politicized in a way that i think we have lost something from the previous culture. >> martha: howie kurtz, thank you. good to see you. we are still awaiting remarks when the president who is expected to take the stage any moment now at the uss intrepid. we will bring you their lives. also, tensions continue to arise with north korea.

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>> martha: about the escalating threat of a nuclear north korea, the house passed a bill today which would bolster sanctions against the hermit nation, where kim jong-un continues his provocations. this as we continue to learn more about our potential military strategy there. trace gallagher live with the details from our left coast newsroom. speak >> they passed the house a final tally of 419-1. this sanctions mostly targeted north korea shipping industry, which is one of the bed rocks of their shaky but improving economy. congress is also asking the trump administration to report back within 90 days as to what the north korea should be put back onto the u.s. government's list of state sponsors of terror. the north was taken off that list back in 2008. president trump has vowed to deal harshly with north korea, should a test another nuclear weapon. we now know the u.s. army, navy, and air force commandos are permanently based on the korean peninsula in case conflict

breaks out. in prepared testimony before a house subcommittee, general raymond a thomas, the commander of u.s. special operations, wrote that special ops forces like the navy seals and the army's delta force are set to conduct operations against north korea's nuclear weapons and missile sites. the general road, quoting here, "we are actively pursuing a training path to ensuring readiness for the entire range of contingency operations in which special operations forces, to include, are exquisite countering weapons of mass destruction capabilities, may play a critical role." the top priority would be sabotaging weapons to make sure they are not stolen or exploded where they sit inside north korea. along with biological and chemical weapons, north korea is believed to have about 20 nuclear devices and is thought to be developing nuclear warheads small enough to be carried on the tip of a long-range missile. though, it should be noted that north has yet to prove it can

successfully fire off its new medium-range missiles at all. in three separate test last month, the farthest, a cayenne 17 as god flew come about 22 miles. >> martha: here now with more, former special operations petty officer first class, carl higbie. good to have you here tonight. when you hear that a list -- >> who was the one person who voted against that, by the way? >> martha: good question. when you hear that list, it is somewhat daunting about the nuclear capability. if our only solace is that so far we are not sure whether or not they have the capability to put a new nuclear material of the top of an icbm, you have a pretty unhinged individual, maybe not unhinged, but certainly unpredictable. >> he is unhinged. >> martha: that is a pretty scary combination. >> incredibly scary. you can put all of the seals of delta and all of the special ops guy you want on the ground, but the burden lies on the intelligence community. if we don't know what and where we are going after it, we can go

get it. that is the first step. >> martha: in terms of the commandos, take us inside what they are doing. we heard about lots of operatives and people on the ground, who are they are ready to pounce if need be. talk to us about their training, what they are doing, and what they may be able to pull off they are. >> right now, without going into too many details, we are going every scenario that could go wrong. what this facility looks like, whatever footage we have, whatever satellite village we have, we are rehearsing as we see it, as we know it. planning for multiple contingencies. this is something that you would have to come at just to give you a gravity of what is going on, you would have to have a gravity of every single nuclear sites being hit simultaneously to avoid some sort of detonation. that is an immense task when we are fighting again something that has the means to protect us through isr footage, heat signatures, night vision, and also has a 700,000 person standing army. >> martha: incredible. carl higbie, always a pleasure to talk to you.

thank you very much. breaking tonight, president trump is back in his native new york. some protesters lining the streets to be among those welcoming in the home. the president is set to speak aboard the uss intrepid any moment. that is where our chief white house correspondent john roberts' tonight. good evening, john. >> martha, good evening to you by the president should be taking the stage at the uss intrepid. the dinner commemorating the 75th anniversary of the battle of the coral sea, which was a joint u.s. australian military endeavor, that blocked the japanese expansion into the south pacific. the president, having a bilateral meeting right now with the australian prime minister malcom turnbull. remember on the 28th of january, there was a little bit of a tense conversation between the two leaders when the president said he did not like this idea that president obama had kind of deals with president turnbull to take some refugees that had been taken on the islands by the australians. he called it a done deal on the internet. apparently, the two of them have bury the hatchet.

president trump said "i love australia, we have a fantastic relationship." ask about the refugee deal, the president said, that it's all worked out. the first call he had with the prime minister, the president said we had a great call. you guys exaggerated that call. a leaked transcript show that it was indeed a little bit tense. there was some heat between the two leaders. prime minister turnbull, an interview without a country's version of "60 minutes," said we had a frank conversation, and you know me, i always end up for what i believe in prayer tonight, it is all sweetness and light, celebrating the long alliance between the two countries, going all the way back, martha, 75 years, to when they fought and diedr at the coral sea battle during world war ii. >> martha: we do expect that we will have the tape of their bilateral. the prime minister, malcom turnbull, of australia, and president trump speaking with each other. it's also interesting to note,

the first time the president has been back to his hometown of new york city tonight. in terms of that, and his visit here, what have you seen over the course of this afternoon? >> we have been seeing a group of several hundred protesters across the street from the uss intrepid on the highway here. they have been very noisy. they were particularly noisy when the motorcade came by. they've kept up the drumbeat ever since. i just want to let the president know that they are there and they disapproved of him and his policies. it's a free country and we have freedom of speech. it is what they are entitled to do here, martha. >> martha: when i spoke with him last week, he said it it is so expensive to go back to new york and disruptive, it locks down midtown. it's interesting to see what the path was. we will hear right now just a moment, we are about to play out this bilateral discussion between the australian prime minister, malcom turnbull, and the president of the united states, donald trump, as we mentioned, they had a bit of

a rocky start. let's watch. all right. apparently, we are working on the sound for this. john roberts is still with us. john, we see the group gathering here. originally, i think there was going to be a longer time together. for the schedule got a bit crunched because of the rose garden celebration of the house deal. right? >> they were supposed to be at the hotel, which is literally a block away from trump tower at about four or 5:00 this afternoon. when the health care boat was coming down, the president decided he wanted to stay in washington a little bit longer to have that victory lap that he did so many members of congress. i guess he called malcom turnbull and set i got to cut back the meeting this afternoon. let's have it tonight on the intrepid. i don't know what the prime minister's reaction to that, but i am told that someone in the australian delegation so that is quite a snob that the

president would cancel a planned bilateral meeting with the leader of another country to have that ceremony and the rose garden. but martha, you know this president well. he does what he wants to do. he feels like he has invested a lot of time and energy and a lot of cooperation with republicans in congress on the health care bill. he wanted to let the country know that he was happy about what happened. the person who was for that was the prime minister of australia. it seems like they are getting along quite well. >> martha: they seem pretty happy shaking hands. we will see that tape in just a moment. it was a very big day, really, for the white house. there was no way he was going to mess that moment of marking it. he blames the democrats for spiking the football the other day but they didn't benefit -- speak of the president has invested a lot of capital as well as time. when they went out for the easter break, look like the whole thing was dead. the president persevered and i got back this afternoon. >> martha: john, thank you so

much. john roberts of the uss intrepid. there is a scene of the dinnerware that president is headed into that room moments away. thank you for being with us tonight and sharing "the story." we'll be back with more tomorrow night. tucker carlson is coming up nex next. >> tucker: this is a fox news alert. president trump is expected to speak at any moment now. of course, we'll bring it to you as soon as that starts. good evening and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." the president is about to deliver a speech at the intrepid sea air and space museum in new york city. during his first visit to new york since becoming the president. just moments ago, the president met with the australian prime minister, malcom turnbull. we have tape of that which we are going to go to in just a minute. first, we want to go to charles krauthammer, who i believe a standing by in washington tonight. charles, there is other news, thanks a lot for joining us. there is other news today.