number one? good to have you. >> my favorite. >> the people thank you, too. we are going to wrap it up, see you back here at noon eastern tomorrow, "happening now" now. >> jon: we start with a fox news alert, awaiting the daily white house press briefing from press secretary sean spicer, set to start any minute now. >> it comes as the white house is putting major pressure on republican senators to pass a plan to rib place obamacare. we are covering all of the news "happening now" ." >> we have eliminated it, so the fight goes on. >> jon: defense secretary confirming the leader of isis in afghanistan was killed by u.s. and afghan forces as general james mattis meets with our allies on the fight to defeat the terrorist army. plus, former acting attorney general sally yates set to testify in the rush

investigation amid growing concerns that russia might still be an issue heading into the 2018 midterms. and a gruesome double murder, two physicians engaged to be married are found dead in their penthouse apartment. as police reveal disturbing details about this aspect. it is all "happening now" ." ♪ >> jon: but we begin with the battle over the republican plan to replace obamacare, the house moving the latest health care bill forward now, it faces an uncertain future in the senate, look up to the second hour of "happening now," i'm jon scott. >> julie: i'm julie banderas in for jenna scott today. the president telling republican lawmakers not to let the people down on health care, but some in the senate want to scrap the build altogether and go back to square one. >> jon: kristin fisher live at the white house with more.

>> after successfully lobbying, house republicans passed the healthcare bill, president trump is now pressuring senate republicans to do the same. he won them over the weekend not to let the american public down, but the public and the president are going to need to be patient on this one. the senate is expected to take much longer than the house did. in fact, republican senator susan collins said the senate will not even take up the house bill. they are going to start from scratch. some more moderate house or republicans like how some dirty leader kevin mccarthy say they are fine with that >> i have no problem if they write their own bill. if it took the house passing a bill to get them moving, i and thankful for that, but whatever they do, they need to act because more people are losing their healthcare, premiums are continuing to rise. >> house conservatives, freedom caucus in particular, are going to be a much tougher sell. another detractor, former president barack obama who is now actively campaigning

senators to save his signature healthcare law. >> i hope the current members of congress recall that it actually does not take a lot of courage to help those that are already powerful. already comfortable. already influential. but it does require some courage to champion the vulnerable and the sick and the infirm. >> the other big news at the white house today, president trump continuing to keep his campaign promise of appointing conservative just doing my judges to the supreme court. after getting judge gorsuch to the high court, the administration it's training its tenants two20 openings on the lower court, ten nominees are ed today and that will likely happen during the briefing which should be starting any minute now, that has been known to run a minute or two late here and there. >> jon: we are waiting for that briefing to begin.

we will take it live when it gets there. kristin fisher at the white house, thank you. >> julie: now to capitol hill as the fight to repeal in replace obamacare now shifts to the senate where republicans have a much slimmer majority and lawmakers could start from scratch on the legislation. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill with the chance to pick it all down for us. >> good afternoon, only 52 republicans and the senate, there is very little wiggle room so the work is underway to see if they can come up with a consensus republican health care reform plan. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has a working group that has been meeting, trying to figure out what ideas must be included in a senate g.o.p. healthcare package. top republicans on capitol hill say this is a rescue mission, and they must get it right. >> these are our friends in constituents, we have to make sure that people who have bad healthcare status, pre-existing conditions get affordable coverage, and that is not happening in obamacare.

you have to remember, if you cannot even get a health insurance plan, what good is it? you don't have health insurance. speak up about last week on the american healthcare act was very tight, 217-213. no democrats supported that vote coming out of the question is what role they play of in the senate? some suggest they are open to improving healthcare but do not like the notion of starting from scratch. >> we have given 20 million people, 20 by a people healthcare they never had, never bought, don't know the value. we never gave them one word of instructions how to use it, how to use it more effectively, more efficiently, how to keep themselves healthier, nutritional lifestyles, changing the whole lifestyle, making them more palatable in responsible. there are tremendous savings. we are not trying anything. >> democrats are focused on fixing obamacare, republicans are focused on scrapping obamacare with the tension shifting to the senate, not entirely clear they will be able to work together.

>> julie: mike emanuel at the white house, thank you so much. >> jon: the president's team is working out you sell the g.o.p. healthcare bill to the senate with white house chief of staff reince priebus urging lawmakers to do the right thing and get it done. >> looks, the fact of the matter is they are sometimes in life that you have to do what is right, not what is politically expedient. we believe this will be a better product and by that time people see the premiums are lower, better service, more options, more choices, they are going to reward the republicans that set up and said we are not going to see the obamacare system which is failing and collapsing to continue any longer. we're going to do something better and do our job as legislators to get this thing done. >> jon: joining us now is james freeman, assisted editor of "the wall street journal" editorial page again a fox news contributor. reince priebus, the president's chief of staff doesn't see much risk in the republican revamping obamacare. how do you see it? >> i think the much greater risk

is if they fail, if they do nothing in this phenomenon we have seen of insurance companies pulling out of the exchanges, parts of the country where there is no choice anymore, rising premiums, that all continues. i think they have a great opportunity here. the law failed on all of its basic promises, and they can do better. >> jon: do you think that is the widely held perception in the country that it has failed on its premises? >> certainly they did not get as many people covered as they intended, certainly when the promise was your premiums are going to go down by 2500 bucks, and they've gone up double digit increases. i do not see people satisfied. i think this is where people miss read some of these polls where they say, look, obamacare now is popular. you still have in every poll, huge majorities who either want to scrap it completely or want significant changes, and i think that is the part the republicans

can work on, create a system where premiums are lower, you have more choice, and more people get options. >> jon: most of the insured in the country are covered under their employer health care plan, write? that is likely not going to change. >> i think that was part of the problem with obamacare which is why we've gotten to this debate with people with pre-existing conditions who will get covered, but you are talking about a very small percentage of the market. what obamacare tried to do is change the entire healthcare system, reallocate wealth within it instead of addressing that particular problem which i think republicans can do relatively inexpensively in terms of providing a place where people can get coverage, get care if they need it. >> jon: why is there so much doom and gloom both in the coverage and in the democrat response to what the republicans have done at least on the house side? >> i think there was too much

doom and gloom, may be too much fear among moderates in the house. i don't think they realized that if president trump's project fails and there is no improvement in insurance, the failures of obamacare continue, this is a political disaster for them and in swing districts, they get voted out next year. i'm not sure why it took them so long to come around. i think for the moderates in the senate, they should consider that failure is really not an option if they want to stick around. >> jon: there was a time and president trump said listen, this thing is going to collapse, just let it collapse and let the democrats take the blame. >> i suppose that could be a strategy, but if you think about it, given that republicans have the white house, both houses of congress, i don't think that's going to be an acceptable answer for voters next year as they go to the polls. yes, obama created this mess, but you had a chance to fix it and did not, you are going to pay the price. >> jon: from "the wall street journal," james

freeman, thank you. >> julie: white house given the pentagon the go-ahead to send more troops to iraq and to syria. what defense secretary james mattis is saying about the next step in that fight to defeat isis. plus, north korea detaining yet another american citizen over the weekend. that makes four total. how it could affect an already tense relationship between the u.s. and the rogue nation. >> this is regime that has been making belligerent statements for years and years and years, and it is one of the reasons why we have to take this threat seriously because it is a destabilizing actor in the region. studies show that toms have the highest average earning potential over their professional lifetime. see? uh, it's a girl. congratulations! two of my girls are toms. i work for ally, finances are my thing. you know, i'm gonna go give birth real quick and then we'll talk, ok? nice baby. let's go. here comes tom #5!

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>> jon: as promised, the white house press briefing is underway on this monday, let's listen to sean spicer.

>> press secretary spicer: -- the pentagon, move this up a little bit, i appreciate your flexibility today so the pool has enough time to cover the rice president and secretary shall get as they welcome on a flight veterans to washington on the anniversary of ve day. they are hosting more than 120 veterans of world war ii, the korean war and vietnam it work as part of the appreciation month and highlighting the trump administration that meant to our military and public service. also today, the vice president, secretary price, secretary david shulkin all attended an event on the sector the next scientific opportunities and biomedicine, key leaders from to do my government, the private sector and academia discuss the united states conference of biomedical landscape and further educated the white house staff including assistance to the president ivanka trump and cordish on it, it was led by the director of the institutes of

health. leaders in the medical education and research joint executives from companies who invest in biotech to provide analysis in real life examples of how america's sustained leadership in the biomedical industry has resulted in measurable benefits to both our countries economic and physical well-being. among the changes are forward, the head of the cancer center, cornelia bartman, president of science at the zuckerberg initiative, dr. mark levine, president of stanford university and dr. rick, the president of rockefeller university. the united states currently sits atop the list of global investors and innovation in the life sciences, responsible for 44% of global research and development. this investment is dependent on the nih and the important research it funds. in order to maintain our independent leadership and

biomedicine, we must strengthen that partnership between government agencies, investor, academics, the buyer from industry and research foundations for this meeting was an important step in reinforcing that essential cooperation. moving on, i am pleased to announce that today, shortly after this briefing, we released a list of the president's third wave of federal court nominees. these ten individuals the president has chosen were chosen for their deep knowledge of the law and commitment to upholding constitutional principles. shield the nominees today came from the list of potential supreme court nominees that the president released during the campaign. if the can -- confirmed, there will be a new justice for the sixth circuit, justice losses currently serving on the michigan supreme court and david will be a circuit court judge on that u.s. court of appeals for the eighth circuit. he currently serves as a justice of the minnesota supreme court. the campaign list was put together with input from the

heritage foundation as well as the federalist society, and asked the president said last september when it was released, these highly respected people are the kind of scholars that we need to preserve the very core of our country and make it greater than ever before. the president followed the principles that were used to guide that list to select the elite do make additional eight individuals and as i mentioned, the fullest should be out very shortly. in terms of the president scheduled today, he met with his national security advisor general mcmaster and spoke with the french president-elect to congratulate him on his victory. a readout of that call should be out very shortly. the prime minister of georgia was also at the white house, meeting with the vice president. the prime minister then dropped by with the vice president into the oval office to greet the president. earlier this afternoon come the president had lunch with the vice president. in about an hour, he will meet with secretary of state tillerson, secretary tillerson is all we do not also meeting with several foreign leaders of the state department and cleaning the paymaster of montenegro, former minister of slovakia and qatar. secretary james mattis is also

meeting with many foreign leaders during his european trip this week to reaffirm key united states military alliances. the secretary is in denmark to cohost a meeting with the danish minister of defense with senior leaders from 15 countries that are key contributors to the isis military campaign. while there, second james mattis will meet separately with the minister of defense to discuss european security and the importance of the nato alliance. and with the danish prime minister to reaffirm the ties between denmark in the united states. in other cabinet news, it second ryan zinke is in utah today continuing his four-day listening tour on the bear's national monument and grand staircase national monument, putting into action president trump's april 27 executive order to review these monuments. second ryan zinke will be accompanied by the governor, a member of utah's congressional delegation and local state workers for a tour in afternoon hiking tour and roundtable meeting this evening with

friends of the museum. while in utah, the secretary and other officials are holding daily press briefings on the ground. you can reach out to the interior department for more details. with that, i would be glad to take a few questions. >> reporter: president obama then demand warrant then candidate donald trump about hiring michael flynn as his advisor, why did he ignore it? >> press secretary spicer: the president does not disclose details of meetings he has which in this case was an hour long meeting but it is true that president obama made it known that he was not a fan of general michael flynn which should not come to a surprise to anyone considering that he worked for president obama, was an outspoken critic of president obama's shortcomings specifically as related to his lack of strategy confronting isis and other threads around that were facing america. the question that you have to ask yourself really is that if president obama was truly concerned about general flynn, why didn't he suspend general

sense of security clearance which they had just reapproved a month earlier? additionally, why did the obama admin attrition let him go to russia for eight paid speaking engagement? there were steps they could have taken -- if that was truly a concern more than just a person that didn't -- had bad blood. >> reporter: i want to follow up on that. if a sitting president raises the name of a particular candidate being difficult, why would a president ignore it? i understand what you said, but wouldn't it give the incoming president pause? >> press secretary spicer: i do not know that i agree with your characterization. he made it clear he was not a fan of his, and that should not be a surprise considering the role general sent paid -- played in the campaign. >> reporter: it did not give him any pause at all? >> press secretary spicer: no come again -- if you knew what we knew at the time which was the security clearance he had have been reapproved in april that year, and they took -- not only did they reapproved it, but then they took no steps to

suspend it. the question has to be what did they do if they had real concerns beyond just not having -- not liking him for some comments he made. >> reporter: it is our understanding and you can clarify this, did mike flyn not need upgraded security clearance to serve as national security advisor? >> press secretary spicer: he had been the head of the defense intelligence agency, that is the same clearance -- the security clearance, we went over this a while ago, it is once you get it, you get it for the time you have it. he had his investigation in april 2016, and the obama admitted she she took no steps -- not only did they reaffirm the security clearance, they took no steps to suspend it or take any other action. >> reporter: did you not vet him yourself? >> press secretary spicer: you do not vent on a security clearance. that is why you get a security clearance. everyone in the government goes to the same process. so the answer is that those same -- that same process worked for general flynn as it did for me or anyone else who works here. there is no difference of a security clearance once it is

issued. >> reporter: with what we knew at the time, does knowing what the white house knows now, does the white house or the president believe general flynn should not have had that clearance reissued last year number one? and number two, does the white house believe general flynn was truthful when he filled out his paperwork for that investigation? >> press secretary spicer: am i getting into the details because obviously that was something adjudicated by the obama administration in april of 2016. they took no steps to suspend that, so that is not really a question for us. it's a question for them at that time. >> reporter: knowing what you know now. >> press secretary spicer: i think the president at the time felt that general flynn had misled the vice president and he took appropriate and decisive action at the time and stands by it today. >> reporter: with his ties to russia, registered as a foreign agent now, it did not lead to his firing in february? >> press secretary spicer: we are not going to relitigate

this. the president made the right decision then and stands by it. >> reporter: last week, officials indicated the pentagon plan to send the president a proposal to send several thousand additional troops to afghanistan. can you confirm whether or not the president has made a decision about sending additional troops to afghanistan? if so, when are they going, how many are going and what is their mission? >> press secretary spicer: i will refer you to the department of defense on that p they are in contact with him but we have nothing to share at this time. >> reporter: the president tweeted this morning that senator is on the intelligence committee should ask sally yates about her role in classified leaks about general flynn. does the president have evidence that ties the sally yates to these leaks, why did he tweet that? >> press secretary spicer: i think you guys are well aware of the president's concern about spills of classified and other sensitive information out into the open. it's something that should concern every american, in the president has made it very clear since he took office that is a big concern of his.

so the idea that classified information made its way into the press is something that i think while we are asking all these questions is one of the ones i think the senator should ask, how did that information get out into the open like that? i think that is an equally important question that frankly is not getting asked. >> reporter: is the president believe sally yates was the leaker? >> press secretary spicer: again, i think the tweet speaks for itself. what he says is the senate should ask those questions. >> reporter: aside from the announcement today that the president will nominate ten judges to fulfill vacancies, many conservatives remain concerned the white house is woefully behind on overall appointments are the president really took and told "the examiner because what that he doesn't need to fill vacant posts in the administration and after these ten, they will still be 110 additional judicial vacancies. is he still believed that vacant admission jobs do not need to be filled and are there any plans to increase the pace of political appointments?

>> press secretary spicer: there are three questions in there, so i will try to break them down. number one, we have a very robust schedule of releasing names, there is a mess the back message and method to this, and i think you should expect to see more and more go through, the process this time around is a little bit different, we're actually going to the government ethics office and clearances before announcing those individuals. there is a little bit of difference, but we are well on pace with respect too many of these to get the government up and running. the president's point he was making in the interview was that part of the review of government is to make sure we are looking at these positions and figuring out whether or not we have the taxpayers getting the best bang for their buck both in terms of productivity and cost. so we are looking through the entire government, director mulvaney briefed you all a while ago about how we look at government to figure out whether or not we can do a better job at filling positions, staffing the government, but we are going to continue to have announcements on key positions as the week

goes on. >> reporter: and charger bureaucracy, you don't know? >> press secretary spicer: i think you will continue to see whether it is judicial nominations, ambassadors, key positions, we have a very healthy clip of announcements coming out. >> reporter: ahead of her testimony today, does president trump believe sally yates is a trustworthy source of information? >> press secretary spicer: that is not up for us to decide. it's up for the senate to decide whether or not -- what she does -- we will have to wait and see with that. >> reporter: following up on sarah's question, it seems the president was implying that sally yates may have had something to do with the leaked information to newspapers. is that what he was implying? >> press secretary spicer: i think the tweet speaks for itself. sometimes you do not have to read too much into it. >> reporter: two questions on that. first, the canadian prime minister on friday said that they are considering as a reaction to what the prime minister called the deal on soft do neck lumber, cutting

supplied to the u.s. is this the beginning of a trade war between the canada and u.s.? >> press secretary spicer: that is why we have these mechanisms to do this and it responsible way, wilbur ross, the commerce secretary has been in touch with his counterparts over there. there is a reason that the dispute mechanism is set up the way it is under this particular trade agreement -- under most trade agreements so that the two parties can resolve them in a way that allows both sides to air their concerns. that is what you have an agreement and why you have the set up to do that. >> reporter: so -- >> press secretary spicer: lets let it play out, secretary devos took the right action. >> reporter: ten days ago, the president said mexico and canada have agreed to hasten the process to renegotiate nafta. what has happened in the last ten days? >> press secretary spicer: our officials will start -- we will have further updates on that, right now there is nothing to chair. >> reporter: did sally yates

run any of her testimony by the general counsel office that she will deliver later this afternoon? >> press secretary spicer: i'm not aware of that. >> reporter: do you have any reason to doubt that her testimony under oath will be truthful before the senate subcommittee? >> press secretary spicer: i have no -- i mean -- no. i would assume when you raise your right hand and agree to tell the truth, nothing but the truth that you will do that. that is the whole reason you pledge. >> reporter: thank you. during the transition, president trump was not receiving a daily intelligence briefing. he was receiving his information from general flynn. you think that lack of direct information from the intelligence community contributed to the lax and vetting with general flynn? >> press secretary spicer: so first, he did get -- we excessively went over the daily briefings throughout the campaign peered back then, it was three times a week, and it was supplanted by national security team that would go in and do that.

i don't think -- i think the premise is not there. secondly, as i mentioned to kristin, the processes followed by general flynn are followed by every government employee who receives a clearance at that particular level. >> reporter: on another thing, talking about the signing statement that came out friday with the spending bill. senior admission official including education secretary betsy devos did not seem to know about that pure why didn't she or people working on the issue know about that, no it was coming, whose idea was it? and what happened between when sara was out here on friday saying that she had did not think there was going to be something like that and then close of business when there was a signing statement, and did you know about it? >> press secretary spicer: signing statements are a pro forma activity that occurs during a bill signing that is performed by the department of justice off by the office of legislative counsel used by every president, so i'm not sure what everyone knew, but that goes along with going back multiple administrations.

>> reporter: and i have a follow-up on hbcu? couple questions on the travel ban. back in february, the present said lifting the travel ban would have many bad people coming in, have you seen that be the case for the three months that the ban was lifted? >> press secretary spicer: that is a question for the department of homeland security. >> reporter: is that something you have been tracking? >> press secretary spicer: no, i don't have anything at this time. >> reporter: if this white house is no call [boos] longer calling this a muslim man as the president did originally, why does the president's websites to call for "preventing muslim immigration" and it is donald trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states? >> press secretary spicer: i'm not aware of what's on the campaign website, i know how he talks about it in his first days of the initiation as a travel ban in the country's national security interest to make sure people are coming here with the

right motives and public safety aspect to making sure we are checking our people. we've been very consistent since the first days of this administration on this. >> reporter: so is he completely disavowing the use of that phrase "muslim ban?" it's still on the website. if it were used against him in court today, is it worth clarifying that? >> press secretary spicer: i am trying to figure out why -- i've been very clear -- i don't think i need to clarify what we have said and what the president has said. report it would come up in court. >> press secretary spicer: that is faintly one of the reasons we have concern about how that is being interpreted because i think the intent of the travel ban was very clear. it was something that the president made very clear in filings that we have filed why he did it, the motives for doing it and was very clear when he spoke about it from the beginning. there really should not be any question as to why the president is doing this and the idea of making sure that we are putting the safety of our country and

people first and foremost. >> reporter: two topics. the kushner family was in china making a pitch for this visa program a day after the president signed and on to support extent of that program, so two questions, one is is it a violation of the conflict of interest agreement that jared kushner came to? and also, does the president believe that investment in the program needs to be modified? >> press secretary spicer: i think i would refer you to the company on that. jared kushner has done everything to comply with the ethics rules to make sure it had nothing to do with him per se. he was not involved. secondly, we've talked about this before that the president and congress are looking entire -- looking over the entire visa program, all the various visa programs and whether or not they are serving the purpose that they were intended to, whether or not we are making sure that we do what is in the best interest of the american worker. so we're going to continue to work with congress on that.

>> reporter: regarding the opioid commission, it is my understanding that no members of that commission have been named yet, more than 30 names and what was supposed to be a 90 day period that was supposed to return and report to the president. what's up with that? does it send the wrong signal to people who believe this is a very urgent crisis when more than 100 people are dying every day? >> press secretary spicer: let me get back to you on the exact names in announcement of that. i have a follow-up. i think when it comes to the opioid crisis, the president both during the campaign and transition and presidents has been very clear about his commitment to figure out how we can address this crisis that plagues so many -- so many neighborhoods in committee in s and he will continue to work with -- he appointed governor christie in a bipartisan commission. as soon as we have additional information on that, so we will do that. >> reporter: why is it important for the president to

get these ten individuals out there to serve the country? more broader perspective on this current demand question, there are a number of vacancies, 129 coming into today, say nothing e openings over there that can still be feel due back filled, the piece seems slow. is the president aware of that, is he comfortable and what is the white house doing not just to fill those important judicial jobs for others related to the administration? >> press secretary spicer: the judicial jobs obviously you're going through and a very methodical way. as i mentioned, there's a lot of background that goes into each with the government of office and ethics, the background checks, so they are all in the pipeline. i think you will consider to see a robust announcement not just on the judicial front but other fronts, and we really -- we've been tracking where we are, and we are well on pace with where previous administrations have been, some ahead, some a little behind, but we're doing a great job of filling key positions to make sure we get the right person for the right job.

>> reporter: i want to ask a big picture question about afghanistan, asking about troop levels come you don't have an answer for that. that's become of the special inspector general for afghanistan because russian painted a really grim picture, security and marge reached the highest in a decade, civilian casualties highest in the record, use, so as the president weighs this request for more troops, what is going to be his ultimate goal? is it going to be stability, outright victory in the 17th year of this war? >> press secretary spicer: number one, he wants to make sure we defeat isis, that is something in our national security interest, making sure that we protect our people, but does so in a very responsible and smart way pure he's talked about not projecting where he's going and what he's going to do so the enemy knows ahead of tim. part of that guidance that his national security team is giving him our different pieces that you are talking about, how do we achieve those key outcomes? how do we do what is in the

country's best interest and utilize our military and our treasury to the best of our ability? that is something we continue to work on and to do. that is part of what he is getting briefed on and is implementing. i am not entirely sure if that answers what you are going for, but that's what he's been getting briefed on and the kind of decision making process that is currently underway. >> reporter: is the president displeased with the current state of affairs in afghanistan? >> press secretary spicer: he wants to do what we can to win which is why the national security advisors and others were asked for a plan that can get us there. >> reporter: does the president believe that healthcare is a right or a product? >> press secretary spicer: i think the president has been very clear in his statement, whether you call it a right or not, he wants every person to have access to healthcare that covers pre-existing conditions, that is affordable. i think the steps he has taken over the last week and bill he has unlimited to work to pass through the house clearly

highlights those priorities. he wants to make sure people have access to care. he is concerned when hears about companies leaving the marketplace and not giving consumers a choice. he is concerned when he hears about deductibles going through the roof, costs going through the roof, people not having the access they can to healthcare. he is very concerned that we are facing a choice right now where obamacare is failing and dying. if we do not act, people won't have access to healthcare. they won't be able to afford it. the steps he is taking are to achieve those principles he laid out. >> reporter: question as it relates to president trump and former president obama peered back to the november conversation, where there specific reasons given, and if so as it relates to michael flynn, was it based on private information? >> press secretary spicer: i don't know the answer to that. like i said, he passed along executive what i mentioned to kristin at the offset.

>> reporter: two clarifications. the signing statement broadly, not just how they are used, are you saying the president was not aware of the details of the very long signing statement, just something done? >> press secretary spicer: no, that is not -- no, the president obviously is aware of what happened. the question was asked, it is a process. it has happen for administrations going back generations, i am sure. i don't have the precise nature of when signing statements came into being, but this is a normal pro forma piece that goes along with a bill signing to make sure that the executive branch intent is understood. >> reporter: a lot of things were in that that seems to potentially carry over some things that obama also objected to, but the president and the senior staff here was aware of what those things were and approved of them. >> jon: of course. >> reporter: second question on flynn in the security clearance, both from the podium and also the present made a big deal of this question of the

obama people gave him the clearance or re-upped the clearance earlier. are you suggesting now, knowing what you guys know with hindsight or whatever, are you saying that they should have, you believe the obama admission should have denied him his clearance back in april based on the information that you are now aware of, connections with russia, et cetera, you suggesting they should have denied it? >> press secretary spicer: no, what i'm suggesting is you cannot have it both ways. the folks coming out and saying, obama expressed some concern about flynn, will number one, it was pretty expected, this is a guy who was very outspoken in his criticism of president obama's policies, so the idea that president obama did not like the guy does not seem shocking. the point you have to ask yourself is if you -- if the obama administration or under the obama administration, if they reissued one of the highest security clearances you can get, knowing what they knew then and

then did not do anything to take a proactive step to suspend it in any way, shape, or form, the question you have to ask yourself is if they were concerned, why didn't they take any steps? they are the ones who at that point had all of the access and all the knowledge to everything that was on this security clearance, not us. so president obama or anyone else frank lee in the government was concerned, the question should be asked, what did they do, and if nothing, then wy not if they really truly were concerned? i think that is a fair question. >> reporter: over the weekend, north korea detained the fourth u.s. citizen. are you concerned that they are trying to escalate tensions even further? do you consider these americans hostages? what are you doing diplomatically back channel or otherwise to try to get them released? >> press secretary spicer: obviously, this is concerning. we are well aware of it and are going to work through the

embassy that has a facility -- embassy in north korea through our state department to seek the release of the individuals they are. i will refer you to the state department on that. >> reporter: thank you very much. just a follow-up on afghanistan. you mentioned isis but not the taliban, should be read that to mean -- >> press secretary spicer: no, it is to defeat both isis and caliban. it is to make sure we put our national security interest first and defeat all of those folks that seek to do us harm. >> reporter: are you willing to negotiate with the taliban in? >> press secretary spicer: look, right now the president is receiving a plan and guidance from his national security team as he asked for, and that guidance is coming forward as we speak. he's continuing to meet with them. there will be further updates from the department of defense reports. as i mentioned at the outset, the vice president has an event, want to make sure the pool has time to set for it, we are around all afternoon. thank you.

>> reporter: president obama, was he right about michael flynn? >> jon: a lot of questions obviously about former national security advisor michael flynn, also they are touching the korean situation. korea has arrested a fourth american in that country and charged that person with crimes against the state. sean spicer, the president's chief spokesman there holding the daily briefing at the white house about half an hour's worth, a little shorter than normal. >> julie: former acting attorney general sally yates and the former director of national security and national intelligence james clapper are testifying today before a senate subcommittee as they investigate russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. there is a report suggesting that this investigation could last well into 2018 and cause problems for republicans in the midterm election. >> if the acting attorney general insists on seeing the white house counsel,

that is a tectonic thing in its own right. as suggest a couple things. one is the chaos and that trump white house. second is the inordinate distrust of the officials from the government they were replacing. third it is going to feed that darker narrative out there with regard to the relationship between the trump campaign and the russian federation. >> julie: journey is now, radio talk show host nathan and david webb, fox news contributor and host of the david webb show over on serious radio. thank you so much for talking to us. first, let me just ask you, on the eve of sally yates testimony before the senate about michael flynn, trump maintains and offenses former national security advisor. i want to put up some tweets he put out there today. he said: "ask sally yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to w.h. counsel."

also tweeting: "general flynn was given the highest security clearance by the obama administration -- but the fake news seldom likes talking about that." so david, when flynn went to russia and 2016 to deliver a paid speech and take a photo with putin, he was acting under an obama security clearance. that is a point may be we do not hear about so much, the president wants to stress. why is in the media reporting that? >> because they don't want to -- what general hayden said, the former nsa director, kind of points to that. this is what the democrats set up in a narrative over the weekend and went out to the sunday talk shows. it is dark. it is deception. they are trying to sell all of the darker sides of this. i can tell you're for one, their stories of palace intrigue are not what they say. i was in the west wing this past friday, and spent a lot of time in d.c. talking to top officials. so the palace intrigue is separate. the real issue is the reality that the obama administration and general flynn, sean spicer

just that in the briefing. if they had concerns about general flynn, why did they reauthorize his clearance? >> julie: and by right there. we're going to take a quick commercial break and then be right back. stick with us. we asked people to write down the things they love to do most on these balloons.

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>> julie: welcome back, i want to welcome back ethan and david webb, and we are talking about sally yates, the whole investigation and questions regarding mike flyn, and first of all, can we just point out the fact that under the obama administration, went flynn in fact had gone to russia and was seen in that photograph with vladimir putin, it was in fact under president obama security clearance that he was on that trip. obama, there is now worried that within 48 hours of president trump being inaugurated before taking office that he warned him of flynn. if he was so concerned, ethan, about flynn, why didn't he pull his security clearance?

>> i think that is an interesting question. maybe we should go back and see who did the processing back in april 2016 and make sure the process and procedures were followed. this whole thing is really a misdirection because you have a question here about general flynn and why we have a president of the united states who continues to defend someone who is now accused of allegedly violating u.s. code related to taking money from a foreign government. how can you defend that? this is a shame. republicans, my friends who normally are concerned about things like russian intrigue in the united states suddenly are wanting to point back a year from now instead of looking at today to say what are we doing to stop these interferences in the united states and our people violating the law overseas? >> julie: but president trump never actually lied about his meetings, in fact he did not try to cover up anything here. david come here she came out and acknowledge publicly that he did not believe it was appropriate for flynn to have not informed

the vice president of his meeting and in fact said that he did not remember the phone call they had discussed sanctions and that again was inappropriate. he did not necessarily defend his actions, but he does defend him as a man to say he was a good man, and he was quite qualified for this position. when we hear that president obama warned him that flynn was bad news when he himself worked for the obama administration and had free range to access these ambassadors in russia, just is not the sort of add up. >> no, it doesn't paired by the way, might i also much of that in america, you are innocent until proven guilty. so allegations are just that when there is something proven, then president trump may make a different statement if it was to the contrary. he's allowed to defend his choice for his cabinet, that is how it works here. the fact is that the obama administration with the reauthorization of the security clearance is either incompetent

or they did not have concern. either they screwed up or they did not have concern. the obama administration and their officials have also tried to so discontent with the palace intrigue stories, support of the media, going out after the trump administration, so i'm not surprised that when it comes to sally yates and general hayden, i want to see actual proof, not allegations, even of this "warrant into white house counsel." because so far we see a lot of smoke, no fire. >> julie: of their needs to be proof, are we going to see proof? >> i am not sure yet. as david webb knows as a marine who has been through the intelligence, you would also know that you cannot share certain pieces of information publicly, and i would also suggest when you have people like general hayden making statements like he had with the knowledge that he has of the inside, there is a whole lot of smoke here, and when we are talking about our cold war adversary who has been waging an electronic war on us for at

least the last ten years as a someone who has worked in information security like i have, they've been doing this and to deny that and misdirect is a problem. >> julie: that is all that time we have, sorry we have a lot of things going on with the press conference earlier. thank you, gentlemen. we will be right back. mom? dad? hi! i had a very minor fender bender tonight in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. but what a powerful life lesson. and don't worry i have everything handled. i already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness.

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>> julie: emmanuel macron when a decisive victory last night, now he faces the task of uniting a divided country. some voters saying they picked him only because they opposed marine le pen. james is a fellow with the initiative and author of the book "the end of europe, dictators, demagogues in the coming dark age." why do you explain to me, what does macron splenectomy to the united states?

>> it is certainly a victory for more pro-european, open aggressive agenda. at the same time, i would not read too much into it because a lot of the people who voted for macron are doing so because they did not want marine le pen, it was more of an anti-vote than a pro vote. if you look at the first round results, when you add up marine le pen's support and also add up to support that the far left candidate got in the first round, you have almost 50% of the french basically voted for antireform candidates, so it's going to be a very difficult five years for him to really reform the economy in france which needs reform. >> julie: it does. let me talk about this candidate in particular because he was considered a liberal candidate, if you will come about from a defense and economic perspective, the u.s. can still rely on its european allies for support in the e.u., but as nato and the defense sector [boos] structure of the u.s. benefit from this victory? >> absolutely, marine le pen was opposed to nato, she wanted to take france out and was also

very close to the russians, to vladimir putin. she visited him in moscow but several weeks ago in her partier, the national front got a 9 million euro loan from the bank. he's also quite anti-american, which is not supported much in the united states, but she comes from a long, far right tradition of anti-americanism. this is good for u.s. interests. >> julie: that is good news, we like to hear that. that is all the time we have, thank you very much. we will be right back. stay with us. a meticulously crafted interior. all of these are feats of engineering. combining them with near-perfect weight distribution... ...is a feat of amazing. experience the first-ever 471-horsepower lexus lc 500 or the multistage hybrid lc 500h. experience amazing.

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>> jon: live look at what's going on in the streets of caracus, venezuela. anti-government protests continue to spiral out of control. nearly 40 people have been killed protesting the government and the man who has held the title of president there for about three years, since the death of the former dictator hugo chavez. we'll continue to keep an eye on it, but things are getting ugly in venezuela.

we'll keep you updated. meanwhile, thank you very much for joining us today on this monday. "america's news hq" starts now. julie, great to have you here. >> we are only minutes away from a critical hearing on capitol hill. former acting attorney general sally yates set to testify today on her discussions with the trump administration about michael flynn and his potential ties to russia. good afternoon everyone. i'm maria bartoromo. the white house reacting moments ago to new reports that president obama warned then president elect donald trump personally against hiring michael flynn as national security adviser. we have fox team coverage right now. chris stirewalt standing by. katherine herridge is on capitol hill this afternoon at the hearing. and we begin with white house correspondent kevin corn on the white house lawn.