baby shower luncheon. congratulations to richard, andy and allison. >> congratulations. we're so happy for you, your baby is beautiful. >> have a great day. we'll see you back here tomorrow. >> bill: good morning. fox news alert. as the new president shaping the national courts is one of your priorities. that's what donald trump is doing now nominating 10 conservative judges to the federal bench. with nearly 130 court vacancies this list is just the beginning. hope you're having a great day. i'm bill hemmer. >> shannon: so far, so good. it is but we've had our coffee. ifm owe shannon bream. the trump administration is aiming to build on the successful confirmation of justice neil gorsuch. press secretary sean spicers says all were chosen for their commitment to the constitution. >> the campaign list was put together from input from the

heritage foundation as well as the federalist society and as the president said last september when it was released these highly respected people are the kind of scholars we need to preserve the core of our country. >> shannon: john roberts joins us live. a beautiful and noisy day at the white house. what can you tell us about some of these judges? >> this is at the level below the supreme court. this is the circuit court of appeals, district courts and federal claim courts. yesterday naming five nominees to the circuit courts of appeal as well as four district judges and one to the federal claims courts. judge larson court of appeals -- were on the list of possible replacements for judge anthony scalia. democrats staking out a position that will be reflected in confirmation hearings. the senate minority leader chuck schumer saying with the

first slate of lower court nominees is president is continuing to outsource the judicial selection process to hard right interest groups rather than consulting with senators on a bipartisan basis. the white house believes these believe are qualified. there are 110 vacancies he has to fill out of a total of 800 federal judgeships. if you can get maybe 12, 14% of judges in and they're your people you can have an impact on the courts, shannon. >> shannon: last long beyond the presidency. how is the white house reacting to yesterday's hearing with former acting attorney general sally yates? >> we had that hearing yesterday at the judiciary committee with the former acting attorney general sally yates left over from the obama administration as well as james clapper. some stories this morning.

most are focusing on the idea that the president was warned multiple times not to take on general michael flynn as the national security advisor. the white house and president in particular looked at the story from a different angle. the president saying the coverage should be about how flynn's name was leaked to the "washington post". the president tweeting out after that hearing ask sally yates under oath if she knows how classified information got into the newspaper soon after she explained it to the white house counsel. he remember sally yates telephoned the white house counsel and said i think you have a problem with michael flynn and the president tweeted biggest story today between clapper and yates is on surveillance. why doesn't the media report on this? the judiciary committee chairman drilled down on the unmasking of trump officials. former director james clapper said he asked for the identity of one trump official to be unmasked and both said they had seen the names of unmasked

individuals. watch this exchange. >> did either of you ever review classified documents in which mr. trump, his associates or members of congress had been unmasked? >> yes. >> you have. can you give us details here in this hearing. >> no, i can't. >> miss yates, have you? >> yes, i have and no i can't give you dehe tails. >> the president pointed out neither offered any evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russia to influence the election. the president tweeting director clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media, already knows. there is no evidence of collusion with russia and trump. if the hearing yesterday was damaging to anyone, it was probably lieutenant general michael flynn but it is unlikely we'll hear from him in any kind of congressional testimony setting unless he is granted immunity. you remember a number of weeks ago his attorney floated that idea. as far as i know no one has

taken them up on it. >> shannon: >> sally yates she warned the white house about hiring michael flynn. this is the early days, the early hours of this administration. her testimony leaves plenty of unanswered question. my next guest writes this in the washington examiner. five big things we still don't know about sally yates's testimony. byron york, good morning to you. your question, what did flynn do? are we any closer to that answer? >> no. after all the talk we have yesterday we still don't know what it was originally that michael flynn did that set off all of this concern. sally yates testified that she went to the white house and explained to the white house counsel flynn's quote underlying conduct that was problematic in and of itself. what was it?

she wouldn't say. now, a lot of the talk among senators and others is that it was simply the act of flynn talking to the russian ambassador during the transition and talking about sanctions to the russian ambassador. we do know or think we know that flynn did lie about that inside the white house. he told vice president pence that he didn't do it. so that's clearly an issue. but this underlying conduct. what was it that was so problematic that made flynn vulnerable to blackmail as sally yates said. still don't know. >> bill: was it sanctions, money, neither? today we're guessing, byron. >> she explained her knowledge is based in classified information and therefore she could not discuss it. >> bill: this is what she said about why she went to the president and suggested flynn not be brought on. watch here. >> logic would tell you that

you don't want the national security advisor to be in a position where the russians have leverage over him. now, in terms of what impact that may have had or could have had, i can't speak to that. but we knew that was not a good situation, which is why we wanted the let the white house know about it. >> bill: that's a fair comment. we can all agree on that. he was fired. and whether it took 18 minutes or 18 days, byron, he was out. >> it could have been there was a disagreement between the white house and sally yates about the severity, the importance of that underlying conduct. there are a lot of people, republicans, former officials like steven hadley who used to be the national security advisor for george w. bush say there is nothing wrong with an incoming national security advisor to talk to the russian ambassador and in the context of what was happening in december to talk about sanctions to the russian ambassador. so you almost get the idea that

flynn may have lied about innocent conduct, which raises a real question mark, why did he do that? it's clear that he didn't tell the truth to white house officials and that's the reason they gave for firing him. but what actually was the conduct at the bottom of this is unclear. >> bill: context of relationship. he was fired by president obama and went public against preponderance obama's policies. he was an early disciple of donald trump as a candidate. these guys were close. they were tight, byron. >> the president clearly valued flynn's loyalty. donald trump didn't have that many big time people endorsing him. jeff sessions for a long time was the only senator to endorse trump for months and months and months. michael flynn had been the director of the defense intelligence agency. he had been at the very top of

the military intelligence establishment in washington and he was very valuable to donald trump both as an advisor and display that trump could attract top level support. once trump won flynn was going to get a big job because of that loyalty. >> bill: why does it go, or do we know? >> what we have to do is declassify some of this information. we saw that the chairman. subcommittee, lindsey graham said to yates yesterday, you need to explain some of this stuff to us, the senators, in a classified setting. the bigger issue is they need to explain some of that stuff to the american people in a non-classified setting. so for this ever to be actually resolved, the public has to know a little bit more about what went on. >> bill: that's why you wrote the piece. thank you, byron.

john roberts mentioned immunity. jason chaffetz said there is no justification for immunity right now. i don't know if things have changed now. maybe they have or have not. we'll watch that. >> shannon: still unanswered the question about who leaked the information to the "washington post". didn't get to the bottom of that yesterday either. sally yates getting grilled over the decision that cost her her job. help refusal to support the travel ban. >> who appointed you to the united states supreme court? >> shannon: was yates justified in willfully ignoring that order? former arkansas governor mike huckabee is next on that. >> bill: president trump may be about to shift policy on the war in afghanistan. new reports of a possible troop surge and what that might mean for the ongoing war on terror in that country. >> shannon: police say this man

terrorized an entire city for more than a year. he is wanted for nine murders and is finally in police custody. >> the evidence hasn't pointed us to a motive. we're continuing to investigate. what makes this simple salad the best simple salad ever?

heart healthy california walnuts. the best simple veggie dish ever? heart healthy california walnuts. the best simple dinner ever? heart healthy california walnuts. great tasting, heart healthy california walnuts. so simple. get the recipes at walnuts.org. >> shannon: after terrorizing the phoenix area for months a suspected serial killer is in custody wanted for at least

nine murders. 23-year-old faces three dozen charges face in street shootings between march and july of last year. officials say they believe he acted alone. >> at this point no evidence has indicated to us there are any associates involved in this case. the evidence that we continue to discover daily continues to point back to one suspect. >> shannon: most of the victims were picked at random except for one, a man who was dating his mother. >> i believe that any argument that we would have to make in its defense would not be grounded in the truth. because to make an argument in its defense we would have to argue that the executive order had nothing to do with religion. that it was not done with an intent to discriminate against muslims. >> do you believe it's constitutional or unconstitutional? >> i was not convinced. >> who appointed you to the

united states states supreme court? >> i was appointed -- >> isn't it a court of final jurisdiction decides what's constitutional or not? >> bill: there you have a back and forth with sally yates and senator kennedy. yates said president trump's past comments played a part and some of the judges did, too. mike huckabee with me now. who appointed you to the supreme court? >> nobody appointed me or sally yates. it was the line of the day from a freshman senator just getting there. i thought senator kennedy absolutely nailed the argument. it is not her job as the acting attorney general to make a decision about the constitutionality. if she thinks something is not constitutional, then she should haveintegrity to resign. she doesn't have the integrity

to say to her boss i don't believe it. >> bill: she was fired a few days later. >> she should have been. the reason she acted that way. she was a holdover from the obama administration and didn't support or like trump. there was an arrogance of i don't like that order and i'm not going to follow it. >> bill: you think it was politics? >> total politics. if it wasn't politics, if it was principle, then do the right thing, stand up and resign. resignation is principle. defiance is politics. >> bill: i still don't understand why this has not been characterized not as a muslim or religious ban. why is it not a ban on failed states? iran, libya, somalia, sudan, syria, yemen. many are all failed states. >> it was a three-month hold. it wasn't like somebody who was

an american citizen wasn't going the get to come back home. it was someone not an american citizen put on told until they were vetted. nobody has a right to come to the u.s. on their terms. they come to the u.s. if they're a foreign national on our terms because it's our country. that shouldn't be hard for even the crazy ninth circuit to understand. they don't seem to get it because, bill, this was political. >> bill: it will be back in the picture soon. the fourth circuit was in action yesterday with an audio clip of part of this argument. this is arguing on behalf of the government. he was challenged by the judge robert king on this exchange as to what the president has said with words in the past. watch. >> he has never repudiated what he said about the muslim ban. still on his website. the district court here found it's on his campaign website today. or as of the day he wrote the

opinion. >> it is an archived press statement from 16 months ago before we got into a campaign and we had a primary, election. took an oath and formed a government. >> bill: what key as a candidate said. is that germane? can you fight or argue that in a legal sense? >> no. good heavens. if people were going to be adjudicated of everything they said on the campaign they couldn't hold office. people say things that they know they can't hold up to. that's nonsense. >> bill: except for you. i think your words would hold up. >> not everybody does. a lot of people say things as a candidate and when they get into office and find out maybe what they said isn't practical. it doesn't matter whether you agree with the policy that trump had. the only question and allen -- he said this is a legal question. does the president have the

constitutional authority to make the policy decision? the answer is absolutely yes. >> bill: on that point judgeshed said is the executive entitled to some deference? >> it's not deference, it's responsibility and authority. he has been given that in the constitution and it continue be taken away because somebody disagrees with policies. if he is the president and he gets to make certain decisions because he has been elected and sworn in and it's the way it works. >> bill: do they win, the administration? >> i think they -- this will go to the supreme court and it will be a slam dunk. i don't think it will be even a 5-4 decision. i think closer to 7-2. because again, how do they not -- if they are going to look at the constitution, how can they say they'll start interpreting what a person said as a candidate as the basis for a

constitutional question? that's dangerous ground and even liberals on the supreme court don't want to set that as a precedence. >> bill: good to see you out of florida. in person. what's next? >> shannon: fox news alert. new satellite images discover some mysterious north korean islands, manmade used to launch missiles. are they a risk to the mainland and our friends in the pacific? plus this. >> bill: if you haven't figured it out, all the actions at the airport in america these days, this is in south florida, why the airline is blaming its own pilots for this melee. we'll take you there. wow. this is brooke's yard.

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>> shannon: mysterious manmade islands from found off north korea's coast. they could be used for launching missiles. john bolton is a former u.n. ambassador and a fox news contributor. ambassador, good to see you this morning. we'll get to that discussion. there is news out of the south korean elections. it looks like the candidate we think is going to win moon jay in. the hard live of the conservatives did not -- has reduced south korea's voice in international effort. if that's our winner, what does it mean? >> a return to what was once

called the sunshine policy of two of his predecessors who were in office during much of the george w. bush administration. this was sadly entirely predictable this outcome since president park ran into her troubles and headed toward impeachment. moon only gets, according to exit polls, 40% of the vote but under the south korean system he will win. efforts to pressure north korea or pressure china to pressure north korea will fail because moon will reopen the case on industrial complex. provide subsidies to north korea and meet with kim jong-un. it is just a groundhog day unfortunately. >> shannon: in the meantime we're getting word about the

satellite images picking up manmade islands under construction for at least five years. are they taking a page out of china's book and building these islands and nobody is stopping us and gives us other advantages. some say for military purposes or agricultural. it is probably not in our interest. >> i don't think anything north korea does is in the interest of the united states. i can't say what this construction is about. north korea has plenty of missile launch sites already. it could be additional fortifications. i think the point here is that kind of across the board north korea does not feel constrained. if there is evidence that chinese pressure on the north has increased, i don't think it's really visible yet. i don't think you can confirm it. in any event, i just think 25 years of putting pressure on the north or trying to deal with them diplomatically has failed.

i don't see why year 26 is any more likely to succeed. i think you need a fundamental redirection of our effort against the north korean nuclear weapons program or as time goes by day-by-day as they get closer to the capacity to hit the united states, the risk of a military response rises unfortunately. >> shannon: really quickly i want to ask you about the provocation out of iran the test of a high-speed torpedo. it's the location that concerns a lot of people. the strait of hormuz, critical to oil trade worldwide. >> it has been in the iranian playbook for a long time. if they ran into difficulty because of our concern for their nuclear weapons program or their support for international terrorism they would threat en to close the strait of hormuz which carries a lot of oil out of kuwait, and the middle eastern countries into international commerce. the strait of hormuz is narrow,

the persian gulf is narrow when you look at the actual shipping lanes. this is another provocative gesture by the ayatollahs, another piece of evidence the iran nuclear deal has failed to have any impact on their behavior. comes just before their presidential election in the next couple of weeks and it is a signal that whatever the outcome of that presidential election really won't change iranian policy. it will highlight another challenge for the trump administration internationally. >> shannon: there are many out there. ambassador bolton. thank you. >> bill: president trump putting pressure on his party to make obamacare a thing of the past. paul ryan is okay with that. >> i love the fact he wants to get things done for the american people and pushing us hard. that's what we want to see happen. the point is, this law is collapsing. it is not working. we have better ideas for how to replace it. >> bill: so now as the senate starts its path toward healthcare reform senator rob

portman will play a major role in that effort. it's a bird, plane, low flying drone up to no good. as you watch the wheels turn. let's take a look at some numbers:

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guys. they were already preparing a plan. a group to get the process over there. we made a promise. we made a promise to the people who sent us to congress that we would repeal and replace this failing law with patient-centered healthcare to get lower premiums and lower prices and we have ways of making sure with a people of with pre-existing condition gets the coverage. >> shannon: defending the healthcare bill as the battle now shifts to the senate. republican senators are warning their bill will be very different from the house version and the process could take a lot longer as well. joining me now one of the key senators in this conversation ohio senator rob portman. thank you for joining us. i want to start with a tweet a couple of days ago from the president saying this. republican senators will not let the american people down. obamacare premiums and deductibles are way up. it was a lie and it is dead. the speaker doesn't mind the pressure from the white house. how does it feel to you? >> i think it's fine.

i think there is a consensus among not just republicans and democrats that the law is not working. even if hillary had been elected and there had been a democratic senate we would have to fix the affordable care act. the premiums have skyrocketed and deductibles and now we have one insurer in the private market in our states and many states it's worse. this thing is collapsing of its own weight. the senate will take a look at the legislation the house sent over and put our own imprint on it. improving it in certain ways. in my own state we have a big concern over the expanded medicaid population because given particularly the opioid issue, the addiction, heroin, prescription drugs and fentanyl, the largest pair, 50% of the cost of expanded medicaid in ohio is being used simply for substance abuse and mental health treatment. we have to be sure we aren't pulling the rug out from under

those folks. i think we can do that. >> shannon: a big sticking point for senators on both sides of the aisle. the idea of the medicaid expansion and how it does or doesn't continue and what form and the state waivers tucked into the house bill. allows states flexibility doing away with some of the mandates if they can satisfied requirements in getting the waiver. one conservative health policy analyst said those surviving the senate version is very low. what other issues do you see with the house bill that may not work in the senate where you have to craft a different kind of coalition. >> many of us are looking for more flexibility to the states to design the plans, to be able to come up with creative ways of putting managed care to cover people not currently covered. in a way the senate will provide more flexibility i believe. but in other ways you're right with regard to pre-existing conditions. a lot of us have a concern. we want to be able to assure our constituents that if a person has an illness that is catastrophic or an illness that

is something that would not permit them to get insurance because of the pre-existing condition they can get coverage. we want to make sure it works. there is discussion about taking the risk pools and changing those a bit and other ideas. i think it's an interesting situation because we might provide more flexibility to the states to be able to design plans because we know that over time that will result in better healthcare that the government closer to the people will help to find out what works in that state to cover more people. >> shannon: bottom line, you talked about the failures and a number of of republicans have cited the states and counties where people are left with little or no knowledge and democrats some admit there are fixes that need to be done. can you craft something that will make a difference in the lives of real americans trying to get coverage no matter what their health issue is and if so, is it something that will actually pass the house where you know special provisions were kobld together so they could get the votes they needed.

>> that's a great question and i think the answer is absolutely yes, we can do better. there is no question about it. democrats in a private moment and republicans here on the senate side all agree with that. this system is not working as intended. it is not covering the number of people it was intended. costs skyrocketed and gone up. it was projected they would go down but instead they've gone up. 91% increase in ohio in the individual market. cost increase. 82% increase for small businesses. this thing is not working as intended. people haven't had the choice they were promised. so people have lost their plan and lost their doctor. i think we can do better by taking what the house has passed, improving it in certain ways. making sure we don't pull the rug out from under people getting coverage and over time begin to see these premiums and these co-pays and deductibles level off and not continue to rise. this is the biggest problem we

have really in our economy, too. wages are flat and yet expenses are up and the number one increased cost is healthcare. >> shannon: a lot of uncertainty. yes or no because we're out of time. do you think you'll get any democratic votes in the senate? >> to early to tell. i talked to one colleague yesterday and i can't say yes or no because he can't yes or no yet. it depends on what's in it. we'll have to do it primarily with republican votes i'm afraid. >> shannon: the working group has a big task ahead. thank you for your time. >> bill: scary moment for a cyclist caught on camera in northern california. this is brutal. a drone crashing into a racer. sent him over his handlebars at about 30 miles an hour. he was not seriously injured but this is quite a tumble. get this. the drone's owner came forward offering to buy that cyclist a

new bicycle. >> shannon: can he offer to win the race for him? it's a lot of training to get knocked off your bike. >> bill: new helmet and everything that goes with it. that is a tough tumble. >> shannon: classy of the owner to own up to it. the drone owner and trying to make things right. >> bill: did the drone hit him or land in front of the bike? >> shannon: it looks like it might have gotten into his wheel area, the spokes as it were. >> bill: drones on the spokes. northern california that was. he will be okay but wow. >> shannon: if you start a band i like that drones and spokes. the white house wearing military options in the fight against terror. will more u.s. troops be sent to afghanistan? >> bill: sally yates, james clapper answering questions on russian meddling. chuck grassley on what he learned after five hours of

testimony. >> did anybody make a request to unmask between the russian ambassador and mr. flynn? >> again, senator, i can't answer a question like that. >> mr. clapper? >> i don't. >> is there a way to find that out? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engine revving ♪ (silence) ♪

>> the bottom line here is i want to know how it got to the "washington post". somebody had to have access to the information. and they gave it to the "washington post". is that a fair statement? >> that's right. that's what it looks like to me. >> is that right, general clapper? neither one of you did it? >> that's right. >> that's right. >> how many people can request unmasking of american citizens in our government. how many? >> i don't have an exact number. i think fairly limited because it's normally a fairly high-level officials. >> bill: that came right near the end of this hearing.

former acting ag sally yates and james clapper said they had no part in revealing the names and don't know who did. clapper stands by his assertion there is no evidence of collusion between moscow and the trump team. senator grassley is with me now. good morning to you. >> good morning. i have think you made two important points that i was prepared to make so i won't repeat them. you just stated them. >> bill: well, i didn't mean to beat you to the punch. what did you learn yesterday? >> when it comes to the unmasking that we can find out who allowed the unmasking, that may lead to people that committed the felony of releasing it to the press so it was in the "washington post". but the most important thing out of all this is by the people need to know that by violating the law and releasing

classified information, it alerted the russians to the fact that we were one of the ways in which we track their communications. so that they can take action so that we lose that source of information on the russians in the future. that's a detriment to our national security. one of our tools is less valuable than it previously was. >> bill: the president was tweeting on this yesterday. i'll share two of them with our audience but i'll do one at a time and get your response directly to the points he is making. director clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows. there is no evidence of collusion with russia and trump. come out, senator, and answer that true or not. no collusion? >> that's true except i don't like to respond to what is called fake news.

it's news and it's an analysis that's accurate because clapper made that very clear in public. but i also heard it make it clear in a classified briefing. >> bill: another tweet put it on screen. sally yates made the fake media unhappy today. she said nothing but old news. get past the fake media comment there. was it old news yesterday, senator? >> i think step-by-step going through the four or five times he had conversations with people at the white house as far as i'm concerned that is new news but it is not really -- those details are new but it might not be anything new in the outcome. >> bill: i understand that. when it comes to surveillance and revealing the names of american citizens, that the law was set up to protect basically, do you believe there has been a violation of that

law as you look at this issue today? >> i don't know yet. but it's something that senator graham and i are going to pursue. and i assume senator whitehouse as ranking democrat of the subcommittee would want to pursue it. because when those things happen, then we need to know a violation of law. and we want to make sure that americans are protected with their constitutional right of privacy and we want to make sure that when there is an unmasking, that it's for a legitimate purpose. most importantly, not for political purposes. but you can understand and susan rice may be the answer to this if she appears before our committee, that the purpose of the unmasking and what she knew about it. if it was used for political purposes, that's absolutely wrong.

>> bill: do you think susan rice is hiding from your committee and your questions? >> i don't know whether she has been formally asked to come yet by senator graham. if she has and turned it down i would make that act -- accusation but right now i don't know where it is in the invite status. >> bill: you know someone had to tell the "washington post" about flynn's name. otherwise they don't get his name and it is not in the story and it does not appear in print, correct? >> correct. >> bill: so it came from someone. how long is that list, senator? how many people possible? >> well, you heard what clapper said on that in answer to senator graham, that it is a pretty limited list. he didn't give the exact number. we don't know the exact number. it ought to be a finite number and we can find it out. >> bill: is it half a dozen, a dozen, two dozen?

give us an idea. >> i have no basis for saying if it's 10 or 50. it is a limited number high up in an organization. we ought to be able to isolate it. when you isolate it you ought to be able to find out who released it. >> bill: good luck finding that one out. appreciate your time today. thank you very much. chuck grassley, the republican from iowa. we'll talk again. >> shannon: delays, cancellations all part of flying these days. but check out these passengers. not having it. wow, that broke out in florida after spirit airlines nixed several flights. so now the blame game. >> very tense, very angry, angry people. everybody had places to be and couldn't be there. my sweetheart's gone sayonara.

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>> shannon: a major brawl erupting at an airport in fort lauderdale, florida. angry passengers duking it out with each other, with police. a lot of folks after spirit airlines canceled several flights. spirit now blames a labor dispute with its pilots claiming the pilots are denying. we're in miami live with details. phil, any arrests from all that tomfoolery? >> that's right, shannon. three people were arrested. several others detained. the sheriff's office tells us those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct. hundreds of angry passengers at the fort lauderdale spirit ticket counter when they were told their flights were canceled. nine flights canceled last night, one this morning. sheriffs deputies had to get into the middle of the ruckus.

>> we've been waiting in line here for 3 1/2 hours. multiple flights have been canceled today. one particular flight got canceled and a mob ensued at the front counter in front of everybody else waiting in line. >> spirit airlines filed suit against the airline pilots association and they are in contract negotiations with and who the airline directly blames for last night's cancellations. >> what does the pilots' union have to say about the accusation? >> the pilots' union is blaming airline management. spirit airlines. the airline pilots association and spirit pilot group are not engaged in a job action, rather alpa and spirit pilots are trying to restore the company's operations which have experienced significant problems over the past several

days. on that point everybody is in full agreement especially the hundreds of passengers last night at the fort lauderdale hollywood international airport who suddenly had trips canceled. got stranded and had their total travel disrupted. >> shannon: disrupted is a nice way of putting it. thank you very much. bill, that was phil. have you ever been -- i've been that mad at an airport. i haven't shown out like that but i've been that mad. >> bill: put a mask on it, right? >> shannon: take another lap. mr. bream may have helped de-escalate the situation and a gate agent on christmas eve. >> bill: nsa director mike rogers taking questions for the first time since trump associates have been made public and revealing of names during the campaign.

live to capitol hill. will more troops be in afghanistan fighting that war soon? we'll find out. ts it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah.

>> shannon: the white house considering a major shift in afghanistan. senior military and foreign policy advisors proposing a plan that could send thousands more u.s. troops to fight the taliban and what a difference it would be from the last administration. welcome to a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." >> bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning. >> shannon: i'm very good. >> bill: you've got the taliban, you've got al qaeda, you have isis, you have -- >> shannon: not a good list. >> bill: a long list, too. president trump needs the approval for this mission which has the support of h.r. mcmaster and jim mattis. some on the president's team are against the idea. while there is no decision yet, the white house says the president's main goal is the defeat of isis and the taliban

in that country. the afghan search would add 3,000 u.s. troops to more than 8,000 already there. secretary mattis speaking moments ago in denmark with a meeting with allies fighting isis said this. >> in afghanistan we're up against a determined enemy. as i said, isis has been thrown back there. al qaeda has been unable to mount attacks under afghanistan. there is a path forward. >> bill: kristin, good morning. where would these troops come from? >> they would be coming from the 82nd airborne division. 1500 troops from that division were already scheduled to be deployed to afghanistan sometime next month. what this plan would do is

deploy the entire brigade almost 4,000 troops. they would be sent into afghanistan primarily to train and assist the afghan troops that are already on the ground there. the other key component of this plan would be to hand over more of the decision making to the pentagon which has been a key part of the trump administration. it would give the pentagon the authority to set troop numbers in afghanistan and give the pentagon the authority to use air strikes on taliban militants. bottom line, this would really just represent a renewed commitment by the u.s. in afghanistan. here is the head of u.s. special operations command just last week on capitol hill. listen. >> the critical factor is the commitment to some enduring state that hasn't been described effectively in the past. the new strategy is going to establish that definition. >> just to put all these troop numbers in perspective. when obama announced a surge in 2009, it was 30,000 troops. this is closer to 3,000 and it

replaces the 1400 that were just pulled out of afghanistan in the closing days of the obama administration. >> bill: why send more troops now? what is happening on the ground that would necessitate this? >> part of it are the recent gains on the battlefield by the taliban. if you remember last month taliban militants killed afghan soldiers on an assault on a military base. president trump is going to the nato summit later this month where he promised to pressure other nato countries to contribute more troops as well. so he comes from a better negotiating standpoint if he is able to say that the u.s. is sending in more troops as well. >> bill: good point. thank you so much. kristin fisher at the pentagon today. >> shannon: for more on that steve hayes is editor and chief of the weekly standard an fox

news contributor. this represents a shift in many ways from what we had under the obama administration. critics of this potential move to add more troops in say listen, even as the obama administration got levels up to 100,000 troops it didn't solve the problems in afghanistan. they are very skeptical sending more troops back. >> i don't think anybody should think we can solve the problems of afghanistan. those problems are vast. unlikely we'll be able to solve them this decade or the next decade or the decade following. however, what you saw from the obama administration which was an approach which embraced the afghan taliban and sought to separate them from al qaeda and other militants. that was never going to happen. you can read about it in detail in hillary clinton's book where she talks about having approached the taliban for secret negotiations trying to separate them from al qaeda. numerous experts on radical islam, folks at the pentagon and people suggested to the administration it wasn't likely

to succeed. we've seen it hasn't succeeded and why president trump is having to do this. i should add if you go back and look at the assessments that the obama administration made of al qaeda's presence in afghanistan throughout the second term, they typically said that there were only about 50 to 150 al qaeda militants in afghanistan. well, we know that was wrong. we found a training camp that was vast, dozens of square miles big. the obama administration looked the other way on this. the trump administration is left to clean it up. >> shannon: four years ago then the citizen trump had this to say in a tweet. let's get out of afghanistan, our troops are being killed by the afghanies. he seemed hesitant sending our troops to get involved in foreign issues during the campaign. when you become president you have different intel and a different decision to make when

you're commander-in-chief. >> this isn't the first time that he contradicted himself in things that he said. he is looking with new eyes as he is president of the united states. he made two contradictory claims when he was running for president. one was we'll defeat isis and win the 9/11 wars. win the war against radical islam and two we won't be involved as much anywhere overseas in those troubled regions. you can't do both. you have to make a decision whether he wants to really win the wars or try to win these wars or whether we pull back and leave afghanistan and syria and iraq and yemen and elsewhere to these radical islamists. if that's what he chooses to do we won't win the 9/11 wars. >> shannon: this would have to go to the president for his final say but more authority to the defense department and pentagon with regard to setting troop levels and air strikes on the taliban. the president has seemed to

express a lot of confidence publicly in the military in saying he wants to let them do their jobs. they seem very appreciative of that approach. >> they do. you talk to them and they are eager to have the fight. this is -- our military folks and intelligence folks want to win this fight. they've made that clear year after year. and one of the things that i've heard from the folks that i've talked to they expected president trump to change the rules of engagement to allow them to win the fights that they have sooner. they are surprised this hasn't happened earlier. i think it will be interesting to see not only what he chooses to do in afghanistan but also what he chooses to do in iraq and syria. you talk to people who have some ground level understanding of what is happening in syria and say if you provide close air support in addition to what we're doing working with the vetted syrian opposition, you could have a dramatic impact in just a couple of months in wiping out isis or making strides in wiping out isis.

they are looking for the president to provide that leadership and free them to win the wars that he said that the united states would win. >> shannon: he has had very strong language on that and made that promise and has taken some decisive action on that front. steve hayes, always good to see you. thank you. >> bill: while you folks were watching that, we were watching this. nsa director michael rogers speaking about the unmasking of u.s. citizens caught up in foreign surveillance. what is his point today. catherine herridge is live outside the hearing room. good morning to you. what will come of this today? >> so far this morning, bill, the focus has been on the posture of the u.s. cyber command and something called the gray zone. the battle space between peace and conventional warfare. these are information operations and exactly what we saw last fall with russia and the u.s. election. it's in the gray zone that bad actors go to play when they cannot compete economically or militarily with the u.s. on a

level playing field and the nsa director testified this morning that they have seen no let up in the cyber activity either by china or by russia. this is consistent with recent testimony that the russian operation against the u.s. election required only a minimum investment for a maximum impact. >> russia's influence activities in the run-up to the 2016 election constituted the high watermark of their long running efforts since the 1960s to disrupt and influence our elections. they must be congratulating themselves for having exceeded their wildest expectations. >> shannon: the former director of national intelligence testified it was about a $200 million investment by the russians in this information operation. and it has been so highly successful we're talking about it nearly a year later, bill. >> bill: what is the director saying about the worst case scenario for cyber? >> when we look at this issue

of the gray zone. this may be a term that's not familiar to people at home. this is one that you really want to start paying attention to. it's in the gray zone that these weaker actors like russia can effectively take on the united states and the nsa director just testified that in the worst case scenario he sees the manipulation of data and senator mccain said could you see the effect on voter tallies or voter rolls? he said it could be possibility in the future. to date we've seen the going inside of systems and stealing that data out for some kind of economic or military benefit. >> bill: thank you. it's a long way from the butterfly ballot. technology and elections will keep on coming one after the other. >> shannon: people may want to go back to the hanging chads and ballots. >> bill: i don't.

>> shannon: hemmer -- >> bill: hemmer was 37 days in tallahassee. >> shannon: my hometown but you felt like you had enough. >> bill: that was before this. >> shannon: all right. well coming up former acting attorney general sally yates testifying before the senate yesterday. >> i believe that it is the responsibility of the attorney general, if the president asks him or her to do something that he or she believes is unlawful or unconstitutional to say no and that's what i did. >> shannon: why she says she refused to defend president trump's original immigration order. >> bill: paul is launching an investigation into obama-era surveillance. he is hot about this. why he thinks the administration might have been spying on him. >> shannon: and new information in that brutal murder of two boston doctors over the weekend. what police are saying about the suspect. >> we have no evidence to believe that they were in any sort of prior relationship. nor is there currently any

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cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...find clear skin that can last. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. if you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. see me to know... ...clear skin can last. don't hold back... ...ask your dermatologist if cosentyx can help you find clear skin that lasts. >> bill: this story is heating up. the a.g. in texas already filing a lawsuit against several cities and counties accused of not cooperating with federal immigration agents coming days after the state's governor signed a new law that aims to crack down on sanctuary city. it blocks sanctuary policies and lets local police officers

ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop. local officers who refuse to follow that law face the possibility of jail time and a major fine. >> i made a determination that i believed it was unlawful. i also thought it was inconsistent with the principles of the department of justice and i said no and that's what i promised you i would do and that's what i did. >> shannon: former acting attorney general sally yates explaining why she told the justice department not to defend president trump's original immigration order. a virginia appeals court reviewing the revised version of the travel ban to decide if the measure goes too far. joining me now thomas despres junior assistant attorney general. the ban had gone legal analysis. she decided to tell government attorneys if it goes to court don't defend it. was she right? >> she has the right and had the right to reach her own

conclusion and follow her own conscious but where she went awry is if she disagreed fundamentally with what the administration and president was doing the proper course would have been for her to resign, to enable someone else to assume the role of acting attorney general and execute the president's policies. instead what she did, directing doj attorneys not to defend the order. although she has the right to follow her conscience and make her own judgments she followed that course in the wrong way. >> shannon: this is not unusual. we have seen people say we won't defend it. this is a little more of what she said about her analysis reaching that decision from yesterday. >> in this particular instance, particularly where we were talking about a fundamental issue of religious freedom. not the interpretation of some arcane statute but religious freedom. it was appropriate for us to look behind the intent of the

president's action. >> shannon: judges have gone back to statements he made on the campaign trail. they've gone back to statements made by other trump associates to say regardless of how it looks on the face, we think it was intended to discriminate primarily against muslims trying to immigrate to this country. the federal appeals court that heard this case are split into two camps. those who think it's okay to consider what the president said on the campaign trail versus looking at the order on its face is it constitutional or not? >> this is tricky. there is precedent that says you need to look at the underlying intent or purpose of these types of enactments. what makes it tricky in this case is you could have a situation where two presidents, president trump and president obama, issued the exact same executive order and because things president trump has said in the past on the campaign trail, his verse is unconstitutional where as president obama's would be

constitutional. a strange situation in the law. >> shannon: we have another federal court that next week on the other side of the country in washington state is going to hear arguments over the same travel ban. whether we get similar decisions, a split decision. do you think it's on the fast track to the supreme court one way or another? >> it could be. certainly if we see the lower courts coming out different ways there is an excellent chance the supreme court takes it. president trump said it may be a long legal haul. we all know it. this issue will be percolating in the lower courts but at the end of the day i think the everyone's eyes are focused on the supreme court which may be the final arbiter of this issue. >> shannon: recently the president had a success getting justice gorsuch seated and he rolled out 10 new judges to lower courts yesterday and that's where the cases come through. the left immediately not happy about some nominees saying they aren't being consulted. the senate minority leader

chuck schumer said they didn't talk to us about any of these. is that standard practice? how will things go for these nominees? >> i'm not aware that president obama consulted with the republicans before making his decision. i don't put much stock in that line of attack. these are terrific nominees when it comes to judicial nomination this administration has hit home run after home run. they're serious, thoughtful individuals committed to the rule of law. even if people disagree with them ideologically no one can say for a minute that these are people very qualified to be federal judges. >> shannon: two of them were from the list of 20 supreme court nominations. >> bill: here and other states joining the battle the take power away from washington we'll tell you where and what they're planning to do in a moment coming up. >> shannon: why billy joel fans are busy celebrating. ♪

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>> bill: 'tis the season. texas becoming the 11th state to call for a constitutional convention to limit federal government power. the 11 states would need to become 34 because that's the number needed to amend the constitution. we're on that live in d.c. how would this work? >> bill, the legislatures in 34 states would have to pass a resolution calling for a convention of the states. those resolutions called applications would be delivered to congress which would then set a time and place for a states convention. as proponents see it the convention would realign the balance of our system of government as the founders intended. they say the time is ripe for that. >> we have 144 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities. for every taxpayer that's a million bucks. but for the millenials it's 1.7 million they'll have to come up with over the next 50 years. and so we're going down the

path that every other republic has done in terms of fiscal responsibility that will cause our country to unwind. >> the time is also at hand because republicans control chambers in 32 states and hold 33 governors offices. 34 are needed for a convention. supporters believe government is out of whack in four ways. the debt crisis saddling future generations. the regulatory crisis that imposes too great a burden on businesses. lack of state sovereignty caused by the federal government mandates and state grants and the federal takeover of decision making process that affects central power in washington that has replaced the system of checks and balances required by the constitution. as you said the texas legislation became the most recent to support a convention. the governor has suggested a convention of states would require congress to balance its budget allowing a 2/3 majority of the states to override a supreme court decision. restoring balance of power

between the federal and state governments and allowing a 2/3 majority to overlaw a federal law or regulation. 11 legislatures have voted for it. supporters have a long way to go before any of this would happen. >> bill: what do opponents say about it, doug? >> the whole idea of restoring states rights is a loaded idea to progressives who fear the meaning of states rights as it was interpreted during the civil war years and slavery era. they fear a run away convention in which the constitution is upended. proponents say there are numerous safeguards against this. any amendment to the constitution would have to be ratified by 38 states. that's a high bar that reflects the will of the american people. >> bill: doug is on that story in washington >> shannon: new details about a gruesome scene in a luxury penthouse. two doctors found dead tied up with their throats slit. what detectives are telling us about a suspect. >> bill: new questions about

possible surveillance by the obama administration where members of congress were among the targets? rand paul and lindsey graham want to know. >> general clapper contradicted himself? he later said yes there was with trump. i don't know why i didn't get screened a long time ago.

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viciously murdered these two successful doctors remains hospitalized at this hour as they continue to probe trying to figure out exactly how it is he may have gained entry to the 11th floor of that luxury building in south boston. the 30-year-old suspect faced a judge from his hospital bed yesterday recovering from gunshot wounds. they encountered him inside if apartment. police believe he pointed or fired a weapon and discharged their own weapons striking him in the hand, abdomen and leg. as officers provided first-aid teixeira would open fire if they went inside. they secured the area and discovered the victims. richard field, 49, a doctor at the north shore pain management clinic and bolanos who worked at massachusetts eye and ear.

bound and suffered obvious trauma. both pronounced dead at the scene. field had texted a friend seeking help late friday night. that friend alerted police and called 911. two weapons were found at the scene, a knife and a replica firearm. the look alike gun was inside a black backpack. also discovered in the bag was jewelry belonging to bolanos. >> shannon: any word if the victims knew the attacker? was there any relationship? >> the d.a. pushed back on this saying at this point looking at the investigation three days later that there is no link. take a listen. >> we have no evidence to believe that there were in any sort of prior relationship nor is there currently any evidence to explain why he would attack them so viciously in their own home. >> teixeira had a record.

he had been sentenced to a year in prison for two bank robberies confessing to robbing the same bank twice. he is now facing the murder charges and being held without bail. >> shannon: molly for us live in boston. thank you very much. >> we've been hearing rumors and anonymous sources have been telling us for a couple of months now they believe the obama administration was spying on other presidential candidates other than trump and that it may be politically motivated. >> bill: senator rand paul wants to find out if the white house spied on him and wants to know if other members of congress were being followed by the intelligence community during the obama administration. we have rich lowry and mo elleithee. good to get you out of the hole

in the office where you're working in the swamp. rich, nice to see that you're healthy. reverse surveillance is something that rand paul has been on for a couple of years now. he sent this tweet out earlier. i formally requested from the white house and intel community intel or info on whether i was surveilled by the obama administration or the intel community. can he get his answer? >> he should. he deserves one. i think it's highly unlikely there was a deliberate effort to surveil rand paul of all the republican presidential candidates he was the least likely to actual become president. >> bill: probably the guy who talked about it the most. it was a singular topic for him. >> he has been consistent on this issue over the years and thought the executive branch would abuse this power on make sense he is concerned about this. >> i give him credit for being consistent. that has been his issue for a long time. i don't think we've seen any evidence at all that there was

any improper unmasking or surveillance. i take issue with how he is characterizing it. the administration did not spy on any presidential candidates. what is coming out in the course of the investigation on russia is that some trump campaign officials were caught up in surveillance of foreign officials. >> bill: when you take that information and you give it to a national newspaper, there is evidence then in that article that has since been revealed and printed in the "washington post". >> again, what we're seeing now. i think this is very clever politics by rand paul and some other republicans to try to turn the focus to the leaking or the unmasking as we saw in yesterday's hearing with sally yates to try to deflect from the underlying investigation into russia and its collusion or potential collusion. >> bill: no evidence of collusion that came out in the hearing. clapper said he hadn't found any. >> he hasn't seen any direct

evidence yet but there is an ongoing investigation. >> bill: is that more than clever, rich? >> given how much leaking we've seen, if there is any smoking gun in the russian matter it would be out there already. both sides are likely to come up empty. both on the russian collusion story and both on a big surveillance scandal. it is just unlikely you'll be able to prove the unmasking was deliberately given to people to leak to certain reporters and very unlikely the russians would have colluded with the trump administration. they stole the information, gave it to wikileaks. why does the trump campaign enter into that equation at all? >> bill: you both make interest points. lindsey graham asked this question. >> how many people can request unmasking of american citizens in our government, general clapper, how many? >> i don't have an exact number. it's -- i think it's fairly limited because it's normally a fairly high-level officials. >> bill: at the end of that

hearing lindsey graham said the options aren't many and eventually we'll find out. let's see if that's the case. rich, your point is if there were collusion we would know it by now. mo, when you talk to your democratic colleagues in washington is this an issue they feel like ride for months if not years and use it against this administration? >> i think that democrats in washington right now are very eager to let the investigations both at the f.b.i. and on the hill play out. i will say this, too. rand paul and his supporters, if privacy is truly at the core of your concern here, then you should be encouraging and wanting this investigation to play out because there is no greater breach of privacy than a foreign government hacking into u.s. citizens' private emails. they did it in an electoral context and could do it in the private sector to wreak havoc in other ways.

let's get to the bottom of both and get the facts out. president trump so far has poor judgment to hire michael flynn, poor judgment to hire paul manafort, both were fired and i think that's the end of the story. >> bill: do you think we're giving the russians too much credit? >> for masterminding the whole thing and coordinating with the trump campaign and compromising everyone. >> bill: thanking the votes in michigan and wisconsin. >> i believe in our 17 u.s. intelligence agencies that all agree to this and we've seen it in other western democracies. i thought director clapper made an interesting point. this is the digital age culmination of efforts that the russians have been undertaking for 50 years. >> the underlying weakness of hillary clinton was hillary clinton and her campaign. and that's why the election was so close and vulnerable to late breaking events like the comey letter and the one thing she can't admit and she should. >> bill: thank you rich and mo.

nice to see you out of the swamp. come out more often. thank you, gentlemen. >> shannon: always welcome here. democratic activists launching dramatic protests against the gop healthcare bill. are they going too far? mock funerals and more? we'll talk about that. >> bill: why today is a really big day for the piano man. play it, billy joel. ♪

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the line, guys. piano man billy joel celebrating a birthday today. five-time grammy winner turns 68 years old today. rolling stone named him one of the 100 greatest songwriters of all time. 33 top 40 hits over a career that's lasted over 50 years. he has taken you have residence in madison square garden where he performs every month for two years now. every show has been sold out. he says he will stop performing once the man runs out. happy birthday, billy joel. well done. >> shannon: he shares his birthday with janice dean and dana perino. we'll all celebrate together. call billy up. planning dramatic demonstrations to protest the republican efforts to replace obamacare. one super pac holding mock funerals complete with gravestones, caskets and eulogies. another activist is having

democrats to have their ashes shipped to republican leaders that they can show dying without healthcare. the former deputy campaign manager, a fox news contributor and president of citizens united david, good to see you today. that's quite a round up there. these are getting graphic. they'll ship caskets to republican lawmakers districts. jason heyward would worked in democratic politics says we must be far more visceral. tombstones, coffins, eulogies for the constituents killed losing access to healthcare. they're good at the p.r. battle. what do you make of it? >> i don't think it is being good at a p.r. battle. they need to come up with solid ideas. look, the american people want solutions and not scare tactics. that's what the left only does. president trump won based on ideas. and let me just challenge these folks for a second.

during september and october during the campaign president trump then candidate trump was challenged if he would except the results of the election. we've all forgotten that. he got asked every day will you accept the results. of course now we see this permanent campaign by the paid professional left. these paid organizer out there permanently campaigning against president trump and everything he tries to accomplish, in this case it's saving the american people from the failed obamacare policies. >> shannon: you know how the public argument goes on this. a number of things said by the left and democrats last week that were pretty outrageous with respect to the house bill. they were even fact checked by groups not right leaning groups and debunked but i get tweets and talk to people on the streets who don't know that or get it. they're convinced some of the things said on the senate floor in tweets by democratic lawmakers they're actually factual. those things have stuck with people even though, like i said, outside groups not

leaning to the right have disprove en them. >> it's talk about this for a moment in this sense. the senate is going to take the next month or two to get healthcare, obamacare repeal and replace through the senate and back to the house. once that is done and the bill is enacted and the president signs it and we'll be able to save the american people from failures across the country. we saw in iowa last week all but three counties have choices in healthcare. maryland, the premiums got announced this week have going up between 50 and 100% based on obamacare numbers, not trump's repeal and replace plan. obamacare has been failing and failing at a rapid pace. so what this bill is going to do is save our healthcare system. i think that over the next couple of years this thing will take a couple of years. obamacare took six years to be fully implemented. it will take one full complete year next year.

i think people's pr go down. i think patient access to care will go up and i think people with pre-existing conditions like my family are going to be well taken care of. >> shannon: what do you make of the obamacare architect gruber who on fox news sunday said he bears some of the blame to president trump. because he is talking about taking away things and overhauling things. he says the failure of obamacare is now in part because of president trump. >> these folks are flailing around. they see the effect that president trump is having on their broken policies, their ticket to socialized medicine which is what obamacare was, really the first step in single payer. that's what gruber and his team wanted and we all know that from the tapes that were uncovered years ago. look, they are upset because president trump is talking the talk. he is delivering on the

promises that he made to the american people in repealing and replacing obamacare. and they can't stomach it. they'll go to every length they can to try to destroy his presidency and try to undermine him with the american people. it is simply not going to work. >> shannon: to the left and the right and the american people we hope facts are what we'll all base our decisions upon. david bossie. good to see you. >> bill: jenna lee is coming up next on "happening now." >> as many viewers have seen the explosive testimony from sally yates on the shadow cast by fired national security advisor mike flynn. are we about to see a push of u.s. troops and more money in the war against the taliban? the new mission in afghanistan. we'll get into that at the top of the hour. >> bill: can't live without your smartphone, right? do you know how tech companies are contributing to your addiction? we'll tell you how to break that cycle if you can't get

enough next.

>> bill: are you addicted to your smartphone? it may not be by accident. a new book most addictions are encouraged by tech companies because it's good for profit. the rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked. also marketing and psychology professor adam alter. psychology fits into all of this. three specific questions, the addiction is obvious. you see a family of five in the car on their phone.

go out to a restaurant anywhere, no one is looking at the menu but their phone. why is this, how is this? >> a lot of the tech companies build features into their products to make them addictive. social feedback. we find nothing more fascinating than nothing what other people think of us. a lot of these products have social feedback built into them and the variable random rewards you get from the experiences. every time i post something online i'm wondering will i get good hits and responses and comments and likes? it makes me hooked. >> bill: that affects us psychologically and emotionally. >> there is no reward that means more to us and finding out how people feel about us. >> bill: some people may not want gratitude. they may enjoy the debate. number two, what does snapchat do and twitter do and facebook and what do they do through their algorithm and software to hook us?

>> they're constantly updating platforms and they have so much data they can work out if we tweet one thing how does it change engagement. facebook has a lock button. you were always getting feedback. snapchat have decided the best thing they can do is have streaks. when we communicate every day we get a streak that gets bigger over time and we're hooked. we want to make sure as the streak goes we don't let it slide. that means that you are hooked every day. kids who go away on vacation will give their passwords to friends to ensure the streak goes on at a certain level. >> bill: it's insidious. there is no end. i know you talk a lot in the book about gaming and we'll talk about that a bit later but i want to get to a couple of things for how you can break the cycle. quickly now on the screen. be mindful of how it invades your life. >> it sounds simple. 75% of us have our phones

within arms reach 24 hours a day even at night. try to carve out periods of time when we're away from our phones. >> bill: set limits. that's number two. don't check email after 6:00. i think my folks around here would kill me if i didn't respond. take time to put away devices and be disconnected. is it possible? >> not the whole time. you can't roll back the clock to 1950. what you can do is pick out times that are sacred and tech free even at dinnertime or a half hour here and there. >> bill: the topic is endless. we'll do a podcast later and post it online. thank you, adam alter, the book is called irresistible. appreciate your knowledge. >> shannon: mike pence is heading to capitol hill within the hour to meet with senate republicans. you have to think healthcare. we'll take you there. you don't let anything

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>> bill: on and on, we could probably talk to that guy for next three days. the >> shannon: do you feel a compulsion where it's like, i have got to put this thing down? >> bill: that can't be normal! have a great day, bye-bye. >> jon: new file out this morning between former national security advisor, michael flynn. the white house knew about his ties to russia and when. good morning to you, i'm jon scott. >> jenna: hi everybody, i'm jenna lee. sally yates telling a senate panel that she warned the administration that he may be compromised by the russians. >> we were concerned that the american people have been misled about the underlying conduct a