♪ ♪ eric: hello, i'm eric shawn. this is a brand new hour of "america's news headquarters." arthel: i'm arthel neville. topping the news this hour, president trump returning home from france to a cloud of controversy as we learn more about a meeting between his son, a russian attorney and a third party with possible ties to the kremlin. eric: and there's a health care hang-up in the senate. republican lawmakers unveiling a new plan, still having a hard time trying to unite the whole party behind it. what will it take to reach a deal? we will take a look. arthel: plus, the scene of a deadly high-rise apartment fire. the crucial piece of fire-fighting equipment this high-rise somehow does not have. "america's news headquarters" starts right now.

arthel: and we begin with president trump back on american soil after spending bastille day in paris on his third overseas trip. the president hitting the links today not to play a round himself, but to watch the women's u.s. open taking place at trump national golf club in bedminster, new jersey, as new details emerge about his son's meeting during last year's presidential campaign with a russian lawyer. kevin corke is live from new jersey near the president's golf course. hello, kevin, nice to see you. >> reporter: you too. great to be with you, as always. interesting, we're a little bit away from the actual golf course, but clearly the white house is watching very carefully how this weekend playing out. sort of a two-pronged approach, if you will, to this ongoing controversy about russia. on the other hand, they want to keep the president on message,

talking about his agenda. on the other hand, they're trying to beef up the staff so they can deal with the ongoing russia investigation. we certainly talked about it here on fox news, ty cobb is now a white house special counsel, a partner in the investigation's practice in washington. a former federal prosecutor, graduate of harvard university and georgetown law. and in case you're wondering, yes, he is related to the great baseball great of the same name. now, the addition of mr. cobb is an outgrowth of the ongoing investigation into the trump campaign's contacts with russian nationals during the 2016 election. most notably, the now-infamous meeting with a russian lawyer attended by don jr., jared kushner, paul manafort and we now now a russian counterintelligence operative. the president isn't letting the investigation keep him from twitter to try to drive the

narrative tweeting just this this afternoon: just got to the u.s. women's open, people are really happy with record high stock market up over 17% since the election. but that's not keeping adam shiv off the trail. -- adam schiff off the trail, writing this in a statement: the report that a former russian counterintelligence officer was also present during the meeting, if accurate, adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting, a portrait of consistent dissembling and deceit when it comes to the campaign's meetings with russian officials and intermediaries. while the russia story dominates washington's news cycle, it seems like another revelation are happens every weekend, the president is really having a go of it here in the garden state over at his golf club. as you pointed out, enjoying the u.s. women's open, having fun, greeting fans, very warmly received even though he knows

when he returns to the swamp of washington as it is affectionately known, the clouds of controversy will hover as he tries the make his way back to the white house and deal with a week that will see him actively engaged in the ongoing push for health care reform. but clearly, the russia story isn't going anywhere, and it's something that the white house clearly is now better prepared to deal with with the addition of ty cobb. arthel: thanks so much, kevin. eric: meanwhile, back in washington senate republican leaders are fighting for every single vote to try and pass the latest health care bill. that vote is scheduled, we're told, for next week. and the president says legislators are close to finalizing the revamped version but a razor thin margin could give republicans some trouble. what will happen? garrett telephoneny live in our washington -- garrett tenney live in our washington bureau with the latest on what could happen. >> reporter: as you mentioned, senate leaders have their work cut out for them.

two republicans have already said they plan to vote against the revised health care bill, a number of others expressing concerns over the plan p and a majority of senators are still reading it through to see if they can support it. arkansas' dan sullivan is one of those who is weighing their options. >> there's an enormous amount of new flexibility to the states. if you believe in the tenth amendment, that is a very, very positive aspect of this bill. the biggest tax in many ways in obamacare were the employer and individual mandates. and those are gone in this draft. and i think that, you know, there are elements like that that are in some ways being overlooked, but are absolutely critical. >> reporter: a senate source tells us majority leader mitch mcconnell has already added a number of amendments to the bill in order to win over concerned lawmakers. late friday we're told mcconnell met with senators from states that expanded

medicaid under obamacare to discuss the bill, and at least five moderate republicans in that meeting requested additional changes, including increased funding for medicaid in the future. senate leadership is also getting some help from the white house which has been making calls and holding meetings of its own with undecided lawmakers. president trump praised the bill this week in his weekly address. >> these much-needed, long-term reforms to strengthen the safety net for our neediest citizens, the obamacare repeal and replace plan would significantly reduce the federal deficit. so it would be good for the federal government, it'll cost you less money by a lot and it'll be a much better plan. you can't do better than that. >> reporter: one thing to keep an eye on early this next week is the congressional budget office's report on how much the revised plan is expected to cost, how much it will save and what impact it's expected to have on premiums. those numbers could certainly

help some senators decide one way or the oh other. arthel? eric: i'll take it. we'll have john faso from new york, congressman, to discuss here in the next hour. arthel: meanwhile, a new twist in president trump's travel ban. a ruling from a federal judge in hawaii that would allow more refugees into the u.s. is now officially in the hands of the supreme court. this after the justice department filed a request to block the judge's ruling. the supreme court setting a deadline of tuesday at noon for responses from both sides. ellison barber explains. >> reporter: the trump add a managers is -- administration is making another appeal to the supreme court over the controversial travel ban. last month the nation's highest court handed a partial win to the administration, ruling that it was reasonable for the government to enforce the travel restrictions on people who did not have a, quote, credible claim of a bona fide relationship with someone her in

the u.s. what didn't the supreme court do? well, according to a hawaii court, adequately define "close family relations." on thursday, judge derek watson expanded the list of familial relationships people can use to get into the u.s. if they're from one of the six muslim-majority countries listed in the executive order. the government's utilization of the specific, family-based veeses saw provisions of the immigration and nationality act constitutes cherry picking and resulted in a predetermined and unduly restrictive reading of close familial relationship. other relative statutes define a close family in a much broader manner. attorney general jeff sessions says the decision undermines national security and shows a lack of respect for the separation of powers. some say the supreme court's ruling was narrow but unclear, and because of that the administration narrowly defined "close family." >> they did not includes fiance,

and at the very last minute that same day, they changed it and allowed fiances to be included. there has been a lot of p confusion about who is in and who is not. but it seems like there is a strong argument from the state of hawaii's pint point of view now to say how do you say grandparent is not a close family member. >> reporter: the judges would likely deal with an emergency filing like this sooner rather than later. they'd still deal with the bigger constitutional questions of this ban in the fall. arthel? arthel: ellison barber, thank you very much. and we are told the supreme court could issue a temporary order in this case in the next two weeks. eric: meanwhile, arthel, on this summer saturday some folks are skipping the backyard or the beach to pound the pavements in protests gathering across the country. there's the women's martha's taking on the national rifle association. they've got a rally at the justice department in washington. and there's several anti-trump protests popping up in cities

across the country against the president. the president is in new jersey to watch the u.s. women's golf open. bryan llenas has more outside trump tower here in new york city which, of course, has long been a target of protesters. hi, bryan. >> reporter: hi, eric. well, a few hundred protesters here in new york city for what they call a fuse fascism rally here in new york, one of 15 nationwide. now we are walking over to times square area where they plan on marching there and then going down to union square. this is an extreme rally in the sense that they're not calling just for an impeachment, they are calling -- all right, sorry about that. they are calling, they are calling for the president to be completely driven out of office. they called the trump administration a regime. they actually even compare the president of the united states to hitler. take a listen. you guys compare president trump to hitler.

>> absolutely. >> reporter: how so? >> hitler was a fascist, you know? and he began, first, by demonizing one section of the people and then the next, and it built towards extreme and towering horrors. >> reporter: so there's one person from refuse fascism.org, again, one of the organizers of about 15 rallies, one in honolulu, houston, los angeles, portland, chicago, boston. we'll also take note there have also been protests in seattle, chicago, as well as atlanta. there haven't been massive rallies, but this is probably one of the biggest, just a couple hundred. behind my cameraman right now, jay, you'll see some people who are actually pro-trump. these are just a few or a dozen of them x this is what we're seeing throughout the country, pro and anti trump rallies at all of these things. i'll send it back to you where this is just sort of the sentiment. back to you, eric. eric: all right.

you're pretty game with those protesters. we don't jump on their desks -- arthel: b. rock, do you need me to come out for backup? [laughter] >> reporter: i'll let you know. they have no idea i've got you on my phone ready to go. yeah, i'll call you back. eric: it is the honor and a tribute to our democracy. arthel: indeed, it is. eric: no matter what side you're on. arthel: very true. eric, coming up we have new evacuation orders issued in southern california as a wildfire that has been burning for weeks flares up. plus, thousands march in turkey to mark one year since a failed coup that turned deadly. eric: and vice president mike pence is making some big promises about the health care bill even though it's kind of close, very close to potentially passing the senate. ♪ ♪ >> as a former governor myself, i know just how important health care is to each and every one of

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♪ ♪ eric: a quick check of the headlines for you.

the whittier wildfire now in santa barbara county, california. firefighters only have a little over 50% of that fire actually contained at the moment. new evacuation orders have been issued for some of the residents there. that robotics team from afghanistan, now they are gearing up for tomorrow's international competition in the washington d.c. those six students had been twice rejected for u.s. visas until president trump stepped this to let them come to this country. and flags are flying high in turkey as thousands participate in the national unity march there honoring turkish soldiers who tried to overthrow the nation's government last year in a deadly failed coup. ♪ ♪ >> president trump laid out his vision for american health care months ago. the president said he wanted a health care system that, in his words, is, quote: far less expensive and far better. and we believe the senate health care bill begins to make the president's vision a reality. arthel: and that is vice

president pence at the national governors' association meeting trying to bridge the divide within the gop after a number of republican governors came out against the senate health care bill. nevada governor brian sandoval saying, quote, i have to be comfortable that those 210,000 lives are going to continue to enjoy the quality of life and health care that they have right now. for more on this i'm joined by vince coal phase, editor-in-chief of the daily caller. nice to have you. >> thank you. arthel: very well. we see vice president pence is pitching in but, of course, the president is involved in his own full-court press. so, vince, as president trump is using the power of persuasion, employing his art of the deal, are there any gop senators who might be persuaded to the president's side and vote yes? >> well, the key here, i think, is to stop senators from voting no, for sure. they don't -- right now there's a couple question marks. the key, brian sandoval, as you mentioned, the governor, he's very important.

he's received phone calls from the president of the united states who's trying to get him to support this reiterated version of the senate health care bill, trying to the encourage him. but chances seem sort of slim even this this new version of the bill. not much has change about his primary complaint which is that the medicaid expanse would sort of be kneecapped by this. because he estimates some 210,000 nevada mans would fall off the rolls because they wouldn't have funding anymore from the federal government. and as a result dean heller, who's the senator from nevada, will probably vote no on thing, and that means this thing's dead. arthel: look, we're saying the president's ready to make a deal. are there the any senators maybe willing to make a deal? who are they and what might they want in return if that's the scenario? >> well, we were seeing, i think, some deal making in alaska, for instance. but ultimately, this is really preventing people from going no at this point.

remember, we have two yeses -- sorry, two noes -- arthel: i knew what you meant. >> beyond that it is about stopping any more nos from cropping up from people like john mccain who's expressed kept sit. arthel: the idea is to the get even more yess at this point. the president and the vice president will continue pushing, and when you look through the political i viewfinder, whose political landscape, current and future, stands to take the biggest hit if the senate health care plan goes to a vote and passes or if it's once again stonewalled? >> often times in these i tend to think that that republicans lose the media war which is the say that regardless of how this turns up, if the republicans fail to pass a bill and obamacare continues to have festering problems, republicans will be blamed for their inability to get something done. if they do pass something, then they'll be blamed, ultimately, for curtailing medicaid and bringing cuts to medicaid.

so they will suffer in that way. electorally, that's an entirely different question. we've seen many, many elections now where republicans have only made gains rather than losses. how that affects republicans electorally, huge question mark. arthel: yeah. and to your point, much of the base, president trump's base, he wants -- they want him to do something because he campaigned on repealing and replacing obamacare. so let's end up here. ultimately, this is, of course, about the american people as noted by governor sandoval. >> yep. arthel: so when you're surveying, vince, your readers, reviewing the complaint box, what do citizens who currently are depending on obamacare, what do they want most to keep in their health insurance coverage no matter who drafts it or what it's called? >> well, i think the surveys on this have been really clear which is that pre-existing conditions, president obama put that in place,s that is wildly popular. that cuts across both parties. and this current version of the senate bill does protect fund for pre-existing conditions and guarantees that insurance

companies cover them. the issue though, as critics are pointing out, is that ted cruz's amendment which will allow healthy people to buy cheaper plans that don't have all of those things president obama forced us to buy, it'll sort of make all the people who are high risk be only in the obamacare-covered pool, and as a result, their premiums could go up. so this is a very tricky situation for the president to navigate. arthel: definitely. well, vince, we are happy to talk to you, and we'll have you back to talk more on this you should i shoo. >> thanks so much. arthel: take care. eric: many residents are homeless after that deadly high-rise fire in honolulu, hawaii. coming up, we'll tell you about the shocking finding of firefighters; a key fire-fighting equipment that apparently was missing in that apartment building. plus, there's a new twist in that meeting between donald trump jr. and that russian lawyer. a russian lobbyist says he was in on it too. no, we weren't told that earlier. what did they say, what did they talk about, and what could the

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♪ ♪ eric: well, there's a new twist in that infamous meeting between senior trump campaign officials including donald trump jr., jared kushner and paul manafort and that russian lawyer. turns out there were some others in the room including a russian-american lobbyist who now says he, too, was part of that closed-door meeting. he's described as someone who's well known in washington, and questions have been raised about his past when senate judiciary chairman chuck grassley wrote a letter to homeland security secretary john kelly. here's a portion of that letter from the senator:

eric: lobbyist or russian operative? joining us is the former assistant director to the fbi in new york. so, bill, he says he's in strategic communications. he denies he's in russian intelligence. he did serve in the military. the soviet military. a report saying a kgb counterintelligence unit. so is there any possibility that there is such a thing as a former russian spy?

>> eric, that's ridiculous. he -- looking at what he has done, he's got the perfect cover. he comes in, he becomes a citizen. he's a, quote, lobbyist, whatever that manes -- means in his world. he has introduced a whole new aspect to this meeting. when you get into that meeting, it had a bad optic to begin with. he never should have done that, he should have let people down the ladder vet these people, but he didn't. now we have a russian attorney, that's in quotes as far as i'm concerned too, and a russian-american lobbyist. this is ridiculous. it has all the smell -- you know, we had bad optics before, now we have a bad odor coming out of this thing. eric:-and-a-half tally says she's a lawyer, apparently she was a government lawyer, but she says she's a lawyer. then she say, no, she didn't represent the kremlin, kremlin said she didn't represent us,

then it turns out that, yes, she's good friends with the russian prosecutor. so, i mean, what does that tell you? >> and the other thing it says to me, eric, is how did she just randomly pick out lobbyist who had some kgb connections? how did that happen? is that just coincidence? i think we're a little naive if we believe that. all of this information, all of it, has to go over to the the special counsel, the bob, and have them look at it, peel it apart and see what's there and what isn't there. i feel very -- go ahead. eric: i'm sorry. finish your thought. >> i was going to say i feel very bad for bob in the fact that no matter what his findings are, if there's no collusion, one side of aisle's going to hate him. if there is collusion, the other side of the aisle's going to hate him. but i know him, he will come out with whatever he finds, it'll be true. eric: what if they were just

there for the ma gin sky act? they've lobbied for it, they were up and down the hills of capitol hill trying to button hole congressmen and others, just plain old lobbying like anybody trying to lobby the members of congress. in this case they were lucky and able to get entray into trump tower. -- emtree into trump tower. >> that's always possible, but the antenna i have stucking up, the would-be president's son, i just think there's more to it, eric, and it's going to have to play out. but i think the white house and particularly donald jr. has to be very, very careful in the future. what hurts even more is to look at what came out initially, we had this meeting, nobody named. and if they were legitimate lobbyists, maybe the attorney would have said something about

it, the lobbyist would have said something antibiotic, but they didn't say anything. and all of a sudden somebody finds out that they were there, donald jr. has to fess up. what other meetings have occurred, if any? i don't say there's anything totally wrong with this, i just think based on the actions of these people right now, everybody's antenna is up getting some pings on it, and they need to be very careful and extremely candid in the future. anything that they release and what other meetings they take -- eric: yeah, we don't know. and we don't know if that's the whole e-mail chain. we've gotten various different stories from donald trump jr. first it was adoptions, then it was government information supposedly from this government lawyer that the russian government supported his father, etc., etc. and now there are more people in the room. now the ap is also reporting that there is a claim that natalia, the lawyer had a blue, like, envelope full of documents that she claimed showed illicit money, russian money going to the dnc.

we hadn't heard about that before in my of those e-mails. >> that has to be teased out as well, eric. you know, nothing surprises me anymore. in this, in this show that's on, we're only in about act i, scene three in this thing. and nothing surprises me anymore. you just have to wait and see. but if there's money that exchanged like that, what can i say? it's a horrible set of circumstances. eric: i mean, there are several other areas we're going to be reporting on in the next few weeks because you've got the russian bots and the digital director of the trump campaign has been call to testify. the bots are the stories that supposedly came out from russian intelligence during the campaign. and "the wall street journal" raises the eshoo of money in the campaign -- issue of money in the campaign. in the spring of 2016, u.s. intelligence officials' suspicions about russian meddling in the election grew after their counterparts in europe warned that russian money might be flowing into presidential election according to officials with knowledge of

the warning. it remains unknown if or whether those funds were funneled to a particular campaign or to others to spend it on behalf of candidates. so that's the claim of natalia talking about the democrats. but then others are claiming it could be involved with the trump campaign, although there's no evidence of that. how does the fbi go through that? what do they do, and that be tracked down? >> it probably can be tracked down, but it's going to be a very delicate -- you're walking a tight rope without a net on one. you really have to be careful what you're doing here. if the bottom line is, eric, it can be true either way. the russians are not bad at setting up false flags and things of that nature. they do a good job at it. and, you know, if they're looking into the way we do our electoral process, you know darn right well they've also looked into the way we run our electric grids and everything else. we ought to know where they're looking and how they're looking

because, think about it, are we doing the same thing the them and to others as well? of course we are. that's the nature of the business. so we ought to be able to know where to look to catch them at doing these kinds of things and, hopefully, with other doing just that. eric: yeah. there are allegations they went into some of the state election systems. illinois, for example, and arizona. that's certainly going to be a big issue coming up, dealing with the integrity and credibility of the way our elections are run. so, i mean, you've dealt with this for decades. i mean, it's actually kind of frightening when it's right here potentially, right in front of our pa faces. and, you know, they have these types of operations that you used to hear about during the cold war that you think aren't going on anymore. >> they're still going on, they changed the faces, they changed the dynamic, they change the way in which they do them and have become much more sophisticated electronically and what not, but it's still going on. and it's going on to a greater

degree because we do have that electronic ability to do these kinds of things the grids, to infrastructure, to our electoral process. the ability to do that is all there for both sides. we just have to be careful, and this has to be teased out, and we have to find out once and for all was there any collusion. there's no indication of it at this particular point in time. but, you know, you have the to be able to say that with impunity, and that's what bob mueller is doing right now. erik eric that's -- eric: that's where the investigation is at, and he's got a bunch of high-level financial investigators who have been u.s. attorneys dealing with international financial crimes, so certainly they have the expertise. bill gavin of the fbi, thank you for joining us with your insight, and we will certainly stay with us. thank you, bill. >> thanks, eric. my pleasure. eric: arthel? arthel: firefighters and residents are still picking up the pieces after a deadly fire in a honolulu high-rise. three people killed, 12 injured in yesterday's blaze.

a shelter has been set up for those who cannot get back into that building. firefighters are still looking for more victims and any hot spots left over from the fire. will carr joins us now from los angeles with more details and, will, firefighters were working without a crucial component that could have helped, right? >> reporter: that's right, arthel. the high-rise didn't have a sprinkler system, and that turned into a major impediment to getting the fire under control quickly. the fire broke out around 2:15 friday afternoon and almost immediately residents and witnesses could see fierce flames shooting out of the apartment r apartments on the 26th floor of the marco polo residential community in honolulu. smoke poured out of building more hours. listen to the one resident describe the scene. >> that fire went is fast, you know, it was just amazing. and the smoke just everywhere. there's smoke everywhere, hallways, elevator, everywhere.

and i heard three or four women's voices screaming, constant screaming, just screaming. i mean, it wasserfying. -- was terrifying. >> reporter: more than a hundred firefighters raced to the scene and quickly found out they weren't going to get much help. they had to hoof it up dozens of flights of stairs with heavy equipment to try to save residents and quickly thowpped found out there wasn't a sprinkler system since the building was built before 1974. the mayor of honolulu says that needs to change for the entire city. >> i think we need legislation to do exactly that in our older high-rise buildingsing, and i think it's something that deserves serious consideration and a review. >> reporter: according to local reports, a 54-year-old man and his 85-year-old mother died along with one other woman. twelve others ininjuredded including a firefighter who had

to be treated for heat exhaustion. arthel. arthel: very sad story. will carr from los angeles. eric: that is. we know the president's agenda getting a bit sidelined with the new developments in the russian investigation, so how does the white house get its message out instead of being overshadowed by the ongoing controversy? we'll take a look. plus, we'll have this -- >> [bleep] arthel: wow. heart-stopping video showing the moment when a police officer tries to stop a train dragging a vehicle after a crash with people still inside. we're going to have the details of this harrowing scene here coming up next. we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you,

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>> call this railroad company to stop moving, they're dragging a car with people inside. eric: body cams capturing frightening moments when the officers went to the rescue of the folks trapped inside that dodge durango just south of houston. somehow, their suv crashed into the freight train when that train was stopped at that crossing. apparently, the train's ennear didn't know -- engineer didn't know it and started going again. the driver and passenger were dragged for about 100 yards. someone was able to flag down the engineer who did finally stop that train. the two people were rushed to the hospital, one reportedly has minor injuries, the other said to be in serious condition but, thankfully, they survived. arthel: back to politics now, the white house bringing in veteran washington criminal defense attorney ty cobb who, by

the way, is a distant relative of the legendary baseball player of the same name. this as staffers are reportedly lawyering up amid the ongoing investigation into russia meddling and the revelations about donald trump jr., jared kushner and paul manafort's meeting with several russian players in june of last year. joining me now is beverly hall berg, president of the district media group and a fellow at the heritage foundation. beverly, good to have you here. >> thanks for having me. arthel: let's start here, in terms of getting a handle on situation, who could lead the charge and what direction should he or she give? >> whatever, whoever is leading the charge, the main thing to keep in mind is anytime you have a crisis communications scenario, which i think we could easily say last week this russia story is, you need to tell the story fully and early. sadly, neither of those things happened. it's this drip, drip, drip of information that's coming out that is especially damaging to the administration.

i think it's why we're seeing so many lawyering up, because i think they're afraid that there's more they don't know, and they're waiting for that shoe to drop. arthel: beverly, could the administration use the white house daily briefings more effectively to gain control of this story? >> i would think so, and i've actually kind of found it surprising that the on-camera -- there's still audio, but the on-camera portion of the white house press briefings is no longer happening. here's the reason why. whether it's the russia story, whether it is feeling that some networks are biasedded towards the trump position and the trump administration, the white house briefing is where you can set the administration's narrative. this is where you hold court, you're the one calling out reporters on questions, you can take the time that you have, there are no time limits. so i find it very peculiar that that is where they've made some changes, and i would hope that they would bring that back in the future. arthel: and someone who has past experience with that in a recent op-ed, former clinton white

house deputy press secretary jen pal myierly addressing the atmosphere when a white house is under investigation saying, quote: no one many a position of authority at the white house tells you what is happening. no one knows. your closest colleague could be under investigation, and you would not know. you could be under investigation and not know. it can be impossible to stay focused on your job. so moving forward, back to you, beverly, what is your professional recommendation to individual staff members to find a way to keep a calm head, stay focused or kind of to your earlier point, will they all have to lawyer up? >> they may. we just don't know everything that is there, so sadly, what this has turned into is an administration that many people voted for, they wanted good policy changes and, sadly, this is what we're talking about. i mean, you look at the month of august coming up, we even have the senate that is staying a couple weeks longer to work on

health care reform. the sad part about owl -- all of this in addition to just the story itself, is that it's burying the narrative of other good policy changes that people across this country want to see. let's not forget in the special elections we've had since president trump was elected, you have republicans win, they're winning on policies that people want to be reformed. so whether that's health care or taxes. so the narrative is being buried, and we can't blame it all on media networks covering stories that aren't there. arthel: we certainly are covering the health care story quite extensively. but let's go here, is this a crisis, this russia crisis that this white house can survive? >> i'm not sure what all we'll find out, so whether or not it will survive, we'll have to wait and see. but i would say what's going to be crucial moving forward is making sure anybody who was involved in this meeting that it's very clear who was there, what did they talk about. because if more information continues to come out that contradicts the statements that

have been said before, that is extremely damaging not only legally, but also it's going to be damaging to the effectiveness of the administration. not just guestically, but i think internationally as well. arthel: and really quickly are because i'm running out of time here, but as they're trying to contain this thing as it seems to be out of control, what about president trump? he's the big man on campus. how can he personally tamp down the chaotic messaging in just this afternoon president, he tweeted referring to the it as the russian hoax story. >> well, i think he has to be careful about how he refers to as, because there is some truth to this story that is concerning, so calling it a hoax is not helpful. what i would encourage him to do with his tweets -- and i have an opinion, i don't think the president should tweet at all, but i think he's going to do what he's going to do -- making sure the tweets whether it's in reference to individuals, it's never attacking people personally. and in reference to the russia story, i would encourage him to let it lie and focus on the good

things that he's done. there's a lot going on this washington, d.c. that's being buried, and i think it adds fuel to the fire. arthel: indeed. this is more to be heard from everyone involved in this story. beverly hallberg, we thank you. >> thank you. arthel: and we will be right back. allstate. if you total your new bike, they replace it with a brand new one. that's cool. i got a new helmet. we know steve. switching to allstate is worth it.

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♪ eric: well, there's a church/state showdown in north carolina. elected officials were ruled, quote, up constitutionally coercive when they began public meetings with christian prayers. and they asked their audience to participate. lauren green is in the newsroom with more on this story. >> reporter: hey, eric. well, you know, this has been a tradition for some 50 years, but now, as you say, a federal court has ruled that the christian prayers offered up at a county commissioners' meeting are unconstitutional, and it really could pave the way for a showdown in the u.s. supreme court. roland county, north carolina, is in the heart of the bible belt. it had owned its commissioners' meetings with prayer that often ended with in jesus' name and invited those attending to join in they wanted. the american civil liberties union filed a lawsuit on behalf of three residents who often attended the meetings. >> if it opens in a way that makes me feel like i'm not one

of those people that this board of commissioners is speaking to and for, i feel sort of disenfranchised in a way. >> reporter: on friday the fourth circuit u.s. court of appeals ruled 10-5 against the prayers, giving the majority opinion judge j. harvey wilkinson wrote:, >> reporter: now, the judge writing for the dissenting opinion, said: >> reporter: now, with the ongoing lawsuit, the county commissioners instead have a chaplain open meeting with a prayer. the county is still deciding if it will appeal to the u.s. supreme court. now, the high court has allowed such prayers in limited

situations, but many a previous case -- in a previous case, the lawmakers themselves were not participating. eric? eric: lauren, thank you so much. we'll take a live look now at capitol hill. this the next hour -- there it is, there's the big dome. isn't it beautiful? arthel: always gorgeous. eric: you know, the senate republicans have got a lot of work still ahead of them. they are moving forward, we're told, on the health care bill. some conservatives not onboard, new york representative john faso will be here with his view on what he thinks should happen. arthel: and also, eric, protests across the country continue this evening and this afternoon. we're going to have more on those rallies both for and against president trump. ♪ ♪

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arthel: the controversy continues over donald trump jr.'s meeting with that russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign. now word that that meeting also included a russian american lobbyist and former soviet military officer. hello everyone. i'm arthel neville. welcome to a brand new hour "inside america's news headquarters. eric: hello arthel. we didn't go anywhere. i'm eric shawn. good evening. president trump as you know is defending his son saying that that meeting was in his view standard campaign practice. but you know critics this weekend are disagreeing. they say there are now even more

questions about the trumps, the campaign and the russians. but as the new details have emerged, the president spent the day relaxing at his golf course in new jersey, watching the u.s. women's open golf tournament. arthel: and kevin cork has more from new jersey. >> you want to operate under best practices. in other words, tell the president look stay on message while you work behind the scenes to prepare for what could come out of this expanded investigation into russian contacts. that means beefing up your stuff which the white house announced today they have done adding a member to the staff, white house counsel's office expanding to include the man by the name of ty cobb. he's a very interesting person. why? well, first of all, he comes from a very powerful law firm. he's part of the investigator's practice in d.c. he's also a former federal

prosecutor, a graduate of harvard, and a georgetown law grad. and in case you are wondering, yes he is obviously related to the late baseball great. the move is important because this follows the now-infamous meeting with a russian lawyer attended by don jr., jared kushner, paul manafort and as you pointed out several others including a person that some are calling a russian counterintelligence operative. >> we know a counterintelligence person in the meeting as well, it is important that we see all electronic communication, whether it is direct messaging, twitter, e-mail, text, whatever it happens to be, among the members of the trump family. and within the trump administration. >> now, the white house says, listen, keep this in mind, donald trump jr. is not a government employee. he only took the meeting after a friend said hey, i know someone who has valuable opposition research into hilary clinton's ties to russia. that meeting in fact only lasted a few minutes. and it was never followed up.

they like to remind us that. today the president is tweeting, he's trying to drive the conversation perhaps in a different direction, white house will tell you, he's trying to talk about things that people care about. look at this tweet. just got to the u.s. women's open in new jersey. people are really happy with record high stock market, up over 17% since the election. now, while the russia story dominates washington, outside here -- outside the beltway here in new jersey, the folks are enjoying not only the u.s. women's open, they seem to be rather excited about the fact that the president of the united states is also there at the club that bears his name. but while the smiles are plentiful over at the club, the president will return to washington for the serious business tomorrow including the push this week to repeal and replace obama care and even perhaps the latest effort to cut washington red tape, deregulation nation is what we like to call it. we will keep an eye on that. for now back to you in the cool studio. arthel: it's cool in here too. i will take it, kevin cork, thank you. [laughter]

arthel: eric? eric: it is not cool in washington as republican senators are trying to move forward with the revised healthcare bill. you know, president trump saying the g.o.p. in his view was close to sealing the deal, but so far some moderates and conservatives as you know they are still not on board. at least two senators are a no vote. potentially jeopardizing the whole effort at an even 50 votes of the senate. what will happen? garrett tenney has been tallying it all up and watching the votes in the back and forth this afternoon in washington. hi, garrett. >> hey, eric. at the point, if senate leadership loses another republican, not only will the revised healthcare bill not pass, they won't even be able to bring it to the floor for debate. apart from the two republicans who have already said they plan to vote against the bill, there are a number of others who have expressed concerns about it. last night majority leader mcconnell met with a number of senators from states that expanded medicaid under obama care, a senate source tells us at least five moderate republicans in that meeting requested additional changes to the plan, including increased

funding for medicaid. there are also a number of other senators who are still undecided in taking time to see what other changes they could request. >> what the american people want right now is we're all doing our due diligence. we're reviewing the document, the new bill, and, you know, we're working hard to get to yes, that's for sure. >> senate leadership is getting a lot of help from the white house as well. president trump and his team have been making calls and holding meetings with lawmakers, and the president continued to praise the bill in his weekly address. >> the senate healthcare bill stops the obama care disaster. expands choice and drives down costs. and i want to tell you, the republican senators are working very hard to get something that's going to be really really good. the opposite of the big lie, which was obama care. >> in one thing, a number of republicans are keeping an eye

on early this next week is the report from the congressional budget office which will include how much the revised plan is expected to cost, how much is expected to save, and what its impact will be on insurance premiums that each of us pay every month. so that's something that senators could push them one way or the other. eric: we will see what those numbers are. they were 32 million. then 22 million. then 23 million. we will be asking john faso republican of up state new york who is an expert on medicaid about that in just about 6 minutes or so from now. garrett, thank you. >> you got it. arthel: meanwhile, the supreme court justices may have a lot on their plates this summer. soon they will review a ruling from a federal judge in hawaii that would allow more refugees into the u.s. now, this after the justice department filed a request to block that ruling. both sides must respond to the court by noon on tuesday. ellison barber has those details. >> the trump administration is

making another appeal to the supreme court over the controversial travel ban. last month the nation's highest court handed a partial win to the administration ruling that it was reasonable for the government to enforce the travel restrictions on people who did not have a, quote, credible claim of a bona fide relationship with someone already in the u.s. what didn't the supreme court do? well, according to a hawaii court, adequately define close family relations. on thursday judge derrick watson expanded the list of familial relationships people can use to get into the u.s., if they are from one of the six muslim majority countries, listed in the executive order. the government's utilization of the specific family based visa provisions of the immigration and nationality activity constitutes cherry picking and resulted in a predetermined and unduly restricted reading of close familial relationship. other equally relevant federal imadministration statutes -- immigration statute december --

define a close family in a broader manner. some say the supreme court's ruling was narrow, but unclear and because of that, the administration narrowly defined close family. >> they did not include fiances. at the very last minute that same day, that evening, they changed it and allowed fiances to be included. so there has been a lot of confusion about who is in and who is not. but it seems like there is a strong argument from the state of hawaii's point of view now to say that how do you say that grandparent is not a close family member? >> the justices are on a three-month summer recess, but would likely deal with an emergency filing like this sooner rather than later. they would still deal with the bigger constitutional questions of this ban, in the fall. arthel? arthel: ellison, thank you very much. we are learning by the way that the supreme court could issue a temporary order in the coming weeks. eric? eric: arthel, it is a saturday,

in the summer. a lot of folks decided to spend today out in the streets participating in protests. there have been various demonstrations that have been held across the country today. some groups have been organizing demonstrations against president trump and his policies. you know, supporters of the president have been holding their own rallies for him too. we are live walking with some of the demonstrators. we have been with both sides. started off at trump tower at 57th street and 5th avenue and is now about 12 blocks south or so in times square. hi, brian, how is it going? >> hi, eric. this rally here in new york city started about 4:00 and they will continue into the night on their way to union square, about a couple hundred people. they are with the refuse fascism.org organization. they are calling the trump administration and his presidency a regime. they call him a fascist, and they are even going so far as to say that in the name of humanity, that's a quote, they need to drive trump and pence out of office.

it is extreme rhetoric, and though some people here will tell you they are here for different reasons, refuse fascism.org which is hosting this has said without mincing words that they have even compared the president to hitler. if you take a look over here, though, there's about a dozen or about half dozen or so trump supporters. they are not big in size, loud, though, and they have been following this rally. take a listen to both sides of the protests today. >> trump without a question is more dangerous than hitler. he has a greater arsenal. he has nuclear arms. he is at the head of a superpower. these are weapons and machinery of death that hitler did not have access to. >> they hate everything that america stands for. it's not trump. it's not pence. it's the american system that they are totally against. >> obviously extremes on both sides. these rallies happening in about

15 cities nationwide. refuse fascism.org organized in honolulu chicago, boston and here in new york city. you listen to them, on one side they say that those are marching against the president are anti-american. on the other they are pointing out plainly that they don't even want to wait for the election. they want to force this president out. they view him as racist and anti-immigrant and comparing him as you heard to hitler. so heated on both sides. luckily no violence here. we have not heard of any reports of major violence or any violence on the other protests including those in seattle. eric? eric: freedom of speech and american democracy in action, even if someone doesn't agree. brian, thank you. arthel: meanwhile, people in turkey holding a huge rally today as that country marks one year since a deadly coup attempt. eric: we will have a lot more on the battle over the healthcare bill. the senate g.o.p. leaders, they're kind of struggling right now to find enough votes to pass it. if the votes are not there, will

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arthel: time for a quick check of the headlines. illinois officials say nearly 7,000 buildings just north of

chicago have been badly damaged this week in heavy flooding. severe storms knocked out power to thousands and closed several roadways. and forecasters expect the flooding to worsen this weekend. honda recalling just over 2 million vehicles worldwide to replace battery sensors due to the risk of fire. the voluntary recall affects the 12 volt battery sensor in honda accords from 2013 to 2016 model years. and a massive rally in istanbul turkey -- istanbul turkey to mark one year since the country's failed military coup attempt. tens of thousands of people attending the march today, showing support for turkey's president erdogan, about 250 people were killed during last year's coup attempt. eric: the new version of the senate healthcare bill well it still faces a pretty tough fight. meanwhile texas senator ted cruz has decided to support it after he offered a change that

provides a bare bones insurance option. others are still holding out. susan collins, republican from maine, that's where rural hospitals they really rely on medicaid funding just to survive. she wrote this on twitter saying quote still deep cuts to medicaid in senate bill. will vote no on mpp. ready to work with g.o.p. and dem colleagues to fix flaws in aca. senator mccain also leading towards a bipartisan fix saying this, have no doubt congress must replace obama care, but if we are not able to reach a consensus, the senate should return to regular order, hold hearings and receive input from senators of both parties and provide a bill that finally provides americans with access to affordable and quality healthcare. so will the republicans do it on their own or will they need democratic support? republican congressman john faso of up state new york joins us. he has worked on the medicaid issue, especially for his state. congressman, i guess you have to scratch collins and rand paul who has been against it. that puts you at 50 votes.

do you think the republicans will make it? or is it going to be back to the drawing boards? >> well, i think really no one knows. i think it is probably 50/50. i think -- i think senator mcconnell has a lot of legislative capacity to get something done. and if he can't get it done, i'm not sure anyone could. so i think it is a 50/50 proposition right now as to whether the senate will actually pass the bill. >> who would you like to see changed before it gets to the house? >> well i think the important thing for the public to know is even under the senate and house bills when you hear the notions of cuts, it is actually a reduction in the increase that's projected over the next ten years of federal spending on medicaid. there's an important reason for this. we've got to get the federal budget under control and medicaid is growing exponentially. in fact the aca made unaffordable promises that they would fund all the new people enrolling in medicaid at 90%

reimbursement. the typical state reimbursement is 50 to 60 percent. new york state, for instance, is 50 percent federal reimbursement. and the state picks up the rest. and the fact of the matter is, is that the 90% reimbursement promised under the affordable care act was not affordable. eric: so basically you think too much was offered? what would be the alternative then? you know, clearly, you know, people fear -- they are watching right now -- that they would lose their healthcare. you have the cbo numbers from 22 to 23 million, up to 32 million. monday we waiting for a new number, probably will be multiple millions projected to lose the healthcare under that. >> eric, it is important to note the cbo has been very wrong in their estimates in the past. they presumed by this time, 2017, that 23 or 24 million people would be covered through the exchanges. and yet fewer than 10 million people actually get their insurance through the exchanges. the important thing here is that we equalize the tax treatment

for people that don't have employer provided health insurance, with those that do, and both the senate and house bills attempt to do that. the other important thing is that we control the growth in medicaid spending. and in new york state, for instance, before the aca, there were over 4 million people on medicaid. today it's over 6 million people, fully 1/3 of new york's population is on the medicaid system. that is not a prescription for a healthy future. eric: what would you suggest? what do you do? besides kicking people off the roles? >> what we do is create more alternatives for people to buy private insurance. that's why the advanced refundable tax credits are an important component of trying to provide coverage for people who don't have employer provided health insurance. the problem is this is not a bottomless well. you will hear what the democrats really want is they want to single payer system. but if you look at single payer systems around the world, all

the industrialized west, for instance, they are having very severe financial problems and this is largely due to demographics. so we have got to be conscious of trying to provide more affordable coverage for people, maybe not without all the bells and whistles that the aca promises, unaffordably, but also provide incentives for people to get off the public systems and on to private insurance. and that's what both senate and house bills are attempting to do. eric: there is an issue, u.s. news world and report has an article out today that's pretty astounding. they said we are going bankrupt. the headline is healthcare will bankrupt the nation. not just bankrupt in the healthcare system, but the whole country. this is what they say. quote, healthcare is devouring the budget. lawmakers should not forget a medicare system that currently collects 140,000 lifetime taxes from the typical retiring couple and then provides them with 422,000 in benefits, multiply this by 77 million retiring baby

boomers and medicare's long-term shortfall is measured in the tens of trillions of dollars. so what do you predict without some type of resolution to this? >> well, eric, you hit the nail on the head here. what we're trying to do is slow the growth of medicaid and get more people on to private health insurance. also give them the capacity through health savings accounts and the advanced refundable tax credits to become better consumers of medical care. you know, it is the iron law. i don't care if it's in your family with your kids or if it's the government, other people's money is easier to spend than your own. and if you give people more capacity to spend their own resources, and give them a helping hand if they don't have high income, give them the capacity to purchase health insurance with advanced refundable tax credits, with health savings accounts, and give people a subsidy, if they are really low income, that's what we do today -- today.

and that's what we can do in the future. we have to be cognizant. turn all the medical consumers in our country into intelligent consumers of medical services. we're spending 19% of our gdp on healthcare. simply the trend lines are unaffordable. eric: to those people who say, look, we need to provide healthcare for americans. if you are without it, if you have a preexisting condition, you know how frightening it can be to maybe go bankrupt, to not be able to pay and afford anything. what do you say specifically to them, as i said before, watching now, when you hear the critics talk about what the republicans have planned, and what could potentially happen, do you believe people will die? i mean do you believe that there will be these catastrophic consequences from this bill if it is indeed passed? >> well, indeed there are catastrophic consequences to staying on the trend line that we're on today. so we can offer people more affordable health insurance and also more affordable options. that's not what the aca does. it attempts to put everybody

into the same box with the same type coverage and it makes it inherently unaffordable on a long-term basis. that's particularly the problem with medicaid. you see this stretching -- stressing state budgets and also the federal budget et. eric, we're on 19 trillion in national debt. that's 19,000 billion and we're on the line, the trend line to go to 29 trillion in just ten years. this is simply unaffordable. and when we have a debt crisis in the united states, the people this is going to hurt the most are the people on the low end of the economic scale. so we have got to fix this, by doing things that are fiscally responsible, giving more opportunities and more choices for people for healthcare. not simply one size fits all, as the aca does. eric: congressman john faso i know you will be at work if the senate kicks it over to your side and see what happens through the next few weeks. if you skip a recess too -- the other week i said you would be up there in cooperstown or something, instead you would be working hard in washington

trying to get this done, i imagine. >> well, i would like to be in beautiful up state new york during this time of year, but duty calls. we'll go back to washington and try to get this done. and look, if republicans can't do it, we've got to work with the other side to try to get some improvements in the current system. eric: there's a potential opening that the democrats and the republicans could work something out. americans need it. we're counting on you. john faso, republican of up state new york. thank you for joining us on this saturday. >> thank you so much. eric: of course. arthel: eric, fire tears through a high-rise apartment in hawaii with deadly results. ahead, the shocking reason there was nothing to slow the spread of those flames. eric: and a russian american lobbyist, well, he's now revealing that he was also at that meeting between donald trump jr. and that russian lawyer. coming up, we will have the potential impact of that new development. what it means to the investigation, to the critics, and the supporters of president trump. (woman) when you have type 2 diabetes,

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arthel: a new turn in the already complicated investigation into rush she's ties to -- russia's ties to the trump administration. we are learning more people were involved with that meeting between senior trump campaign officials and a russian lawyer. we already know donald trump jr., jared kushner, then trump campaign chair paul manafort and a russian lawyer were involved. well, now russian american lobbyist says he was there too, this past april, senate judiciary chairman chuck grassley wrote a letter to homeland security secretary john kelly revealing that he had been raising red flags in the capital. here's a portion of that letter. it says quote in july of 2016 --

arthel: that was a portion of that letter. let's go to discuss this with a hudson institute fellow and former military matters and foreign policy advisor to arizona senator franks a member of house armed services committee. nice to have you. >> good to be here. arthel: how does the newly discovered information of the russian american lobbyist in attendance of this meeting change your scope of the russian investigation? also is there such a thing as former soviet military or former russian counterintelligence? >> well, yes, so, you know, this information is important. just a couple of weeks ago i

said there was no there in this hunt to find some collusion between the trump administration and the russian government. now i say let's drive this thing into the ground. here's why, both of those russians that you just mentioned, both the man and the woman, not only do they -- not only were they in that meeting with donald trump jr. and kushner and bannon but they also have ties to this democratic opposition firm fusion gps. you might remember, this is the organization that put together the fake trump dossier that supposedly, you know, tied the trump administration to the russian government. so the more information we see, the more information we gather, the more information we find, it's really looking bad for both, you know, the clintons as well as the trumps here. what it looks like is the russian government trying to sow confusion and distrust among the american people in our elect to recall process which by the way is what the intelligence agency

said they were trying to do. -- electoral process. let's look at all the details and none of it is good. arthel: you are implying that there's some details in there that could be uncovered that perhaps could hurt the clinton camp as well. >> i think that's right. the other piece of information that we have learned too, is this lawyer her visa had expired yet she was in the united states and that's because the obama administration had waived the law that prevented her from staying here. the obama administration wanted her to be here. now, she says that she was here because she was trying to, you know, convince people to overturn an act that actually punished the russian government for human rights abuses. >> right. >> that's important. so that's why she said she was here, but she was up to other things, had these ties to this democratic opposition research group too, we want to know why and get to the bottom of this. i think those are who are gunning for the trump administration are going to be disappointed when we get to the bottom of it. arthel: clearly i'm sure both sides want to get to the bottom

of it. we do show that graphic that kind of looks like the dating game, two mystery guests there, one reportedly a translator. we're not sure who they are exactly. but what would be the purpose of having a translator present? and also, rebecca, in terms of suspicion and speculation, but most importantly raising the radar of special prosecutor robert mueller and u.s. intelligence agencies who is the attention grabber having attended that meeting? >> well, i think all of it. i mean, i really wish that don jr. whenever he read that e-mail just said no thank you. i mean that was poor judgment on his part. but, you know, he thought he was meeting with a russian lawyer who had information ironically on ties between the russian government and the clinton campaign. that's the information he thought he was having. so that piques my interest. it piques my interest that both of those russians that have ties to the democratic opposition firm were there. arthel: they have already said there was nothing there. we don't know what was there and

wasn't there. >> we don't know. now there's allegations that the russians there left behind a folder that did have information. none of it is substantiated yet. we don't know. it behooves everybody to remain skeptical but also i think we should want to get to the bottom of it. the other point too the reason is this is a concern is because we don't want an american president or an administration that is under the thumb of a foreign government, especially one that's adversarial like the russian government because it can affect their decision making. make them not pursue american interests because they are worrieded about what the russian government might do or say about them. president trump has been pursuing an aggressive america first foreign policy some things the russian government objects to, like opening up energy markets in eastern europe. that would undermine the russian monopoly on energy and shooting down assad's airplanes in syria which the russian government supports. we need to look at trump administration's policies. it doesn't look like he's worried about what the russian government says or thinking

about him. arthel: certainly the media looking into all of this under a glaring microscope, if you will, is it possible that the media are making too much out of this donald trump jr. meeting? and as the president has said this, as well as his spokes people, do you agree with that, that the media is making too much out of this? >> i think many in the media already had the headline written that president trump was colluding with the russian government and therefore was not the legitimate president of the united states. i think that is the story that wants to be written. the headline was written before there was any evidence to get there. so i do believe that, you know, we have been going after this russia thing for a long time with nothing there, but because this e-mail exchange between don jr. came up, i do think now we have to, you know, we have to do some more investigating to make sure we do figure out how much the russian government was involved in this. i do think, you know, we should want the american president, all of us, to not be under the thumb of the russian government. and you remember don jr. doesn't

work for the trump administration. he doesn't work for the administration. but we do need to figure -- >> does he have security clearance? >> he doesn't. kushner does have security clearance. we need to understand too that some of the things he omitted on his forms or if there's something he's holding back that we get to the bottom of that too. american elections, you know, they need to be really guarded by everybody. this is a family situation, an american family situation. we don't want outsiders intervening. we cannot be partisan about this. again, the president -- >> rebecca, i let you go on far longer than they allowed me to. i didn't want to cut you off. i appreciate your thoughts and expertise. we will have you back on. thank you very much. >> thank you. eric: there was a high-rise fire that has killed at least three people in hawaii. it broke out on a unit of a 26th floor of 36 story apartment building in honolulu. officials aren't clear what caused the fire but authorities

say that building does not have a sprinkler system. now that legal loophole well it may change because of this blaze. will carr is live in our west coast bureau with more on this tragedy. hi, will. >> and eric, if the high-rise actually had sprinklers, firefighters say the damage and loss of life would not have been nearly as extensive as it was on friday. the fire broke out around 2:15 in the afternoon. and almost immediately residents and witnesses could see fierce flames shooting out of apartments on the 26th floor of the marco polo residential community. plumes of thick dark smoke poured out of the building for hours. take a listen to how residents described the scene. >> i'm lucky because i lived in 2813 for four and a half years, which is two floors above where the fire started. and i recently just moved to a higher unit in the next column. if i was in 2813, you wouldn't be talking to me. i'm telling you. that fire went so fast.

you know, it was just amazing. >> lucky indeed. more than 100 firefighters raced to the scene and quickly found out that they weren't going to get much help. the elevators had stopped working, so they had to go up dozens of flights of stairs to try to save residents and then try to put the fire out. >> and we still haven't gotten the elevators to work, so we're actually walking all the equipment up and down, up to the 29th floor. >> and of course when they got there, they realized there weren't any sprinklers. since the building was built before 1974, it doesn't require sprinkler systems, but the mayor of honolulu says that needs to change for the entire city, every building, quoting to local report -- according to a local report, a man and his mother died along with one other woman. 12 others were injured including one of the firefighters who was going up and down the stairs, he had to be treated for heat exhaustion. eric? eric: it is pretty astounding

that basically modern buildings, even 1975 don't have sprinklers and it was allowed by the law. will, thank you. >> doesn't make a lot of sense. arthel: well, he went to west point, served in afghanistan, and iraq, but was murdered by a terrorist as he walked along the ocean in tel aviv. now, more than a year later, the u.s. senate is considering a bill named for him. to cut financial payments to palestinian terrorists and their families. will this work? then add a hotel, or car, or activity in one place and save, where would you go? ♪ expedia.

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eric: can you imagine terrorists and their families being paid to kill americans? and critics say we pay for it. that is what they say the palestinian authority is doing by awarding terrorist and the families of terrorists which have been killed by israeli police. in this week the senate foreign affairs committee held a hearing to try and stop it. you know the palestinian

authority shows up more than 300 million dollars -- shells out more than 300 million dollars a year roughly the same amount of american taxpayers give to the pa for what they call martyr payments. critics say it is simply a ward bounty system for the terrorist killings. but the palestinians say the money is needed to support what they consider combatants who have been fighting against israeli occupation. the senate bill is named for this man. he is taylor force. it is called the taylor force act. and it would cut off u.s. taxpayer money. taylor was 28 years old. he went to west point. he served in iraq and afghanistan and he was savagely stabbed to death last year while he was walking on the board walk in tel aviv with friends from vanderbilt university. turns out his killer was a palestinian terrorist who was also -- who also stabbed 11 other people. some of those taylor was with. and his family authorities say is being paid for the murder. critics like republican senator rand paul say the payments are just horribly offensive.

>> people worried oh gosh we cut any of their money, they will be mad. you know, people sense weakness. you know, cut it off. cut every last penny of it. if you want to restart some of it, restart it when they change their behavior. eric: will the bill pass? national political correspondent for the washington post is joining us now. james, we have been reporting on this story continually because it is so heart breaking and in a way so astounding that potentially american taxpayer money can go to these payments. what do you think the senate will do in light of the hearing they held this week? >> eric, good to be with you. negotiations are ongoing in the senate. there is bipartisan broad consensus for the spirit of the bill, that the u.s. should not be supporting these kinds of payments. right now only one democratic senator has signed on, the ranking democrat on the foreign relations committee which had the hearing holding out for kind of a targeting of the bill to make it more specific. >> who is supporting? >> the one senator who is on board right now on the

democratic side is joe manchin from west virginia. >> who is against it you just mentioned? >> ben cardin, the senator from maryland, he is of the mind that generally this is a good idea, but the u.s. can't sort of take an ax and cut off all the funding for the palestinians, that there are some hospitals that wouldn't be able to stay open that do important humanitarian work in east jerusalem and the west bank that if this taylor force act passed, those hospitals may have to close down and they are saving lives. target the funding >> do you think they will be able to target the funding to basically the families and if the palestinian authority wants to do this, they have to come up with their own dough? >> well, that's part of the ongoing debate. and there are a couple of republicans including the chairman of the foreign relations committee, bob corker who wants to target it a little bit, who believes that the money can be targeted. there's also some joint security efforts between the united states and the palestinian authority that they don't want to compromise by just chopping off all the funding.

the other big holdup is in the current draft of the legislation, there is no waiver, so that the president could decide to give the money to the palestinians anyway. what happens when you give a waiver we see -- congress passed a law saying the u.s. needed to move the embassy. >> they could pass the taylor force act and the president could use the waiver. >> right now there's no waiver. >> at least it's a message. >> exactly. part of it is the negotiation is let's put the waiver in to at least the send message and the president could make it more targeted. but right now the current draft there is no waiver. so it would be no way sort of no way for the administration -- it would be no way sort for the administration to get out of it. >> abbas has said no way he is not going to cut the payments. some would say it is a social system that the palestinians rely on. >> you are right. that is one of the arguments is that there could be unintended

consequences here by going and chopping off all this funding. the palestinian authority could fall apart and that something far more radical and sinister and dangerous to israel and the united states could take its place. you know, that kind of gets in the weeds. but as we know, the israeli palestinian conflict is very complex. there are no easy answer. eric: that could be an unintended consequence says some. let me show you taylor's father, who certainly supports the bill. we talked to him at fox news a couple of months ago. >> right now we're doing what we can speaking with fox, speaking with people from the local paper, sending out e-mails to friends, telling them to learn about the situation and try to contact their representatives and say hey, vote for the taylor force act. it does good things. and i think it will be a good start, if it passes. we expect it to. eric: it's heart breaking. it is inspiring. do you expect that it will

eventually pass and go to the president's desk? >> it is really heart breaking. it is awful. taylor by all accounts was a great guy. i think people want to get to yes here. people want to find some compromises and, you know, it can get bipartisan support with those compromises that i talked about. bob corker, the republican chairman of the foreign relations committee, republican senator from tennessee, says that he hopes it can pass by the end of the summer. there's a lot on the senate's plate right now, as you have been talking about this hour. but i think -- i think there's a desire to get to yes. so far the trump administration has not taken a formal position on this bill. i think the president offering support could go a long way. eric: john, they want to get to yes. we will see if they do. thank you for joining us. of course our thoughts to taylor's family. we will continue to report on this effort. for now we'll be right back.

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arthel: a church state showdown in north carolina. federal appeals court ruling a county board was, quote, unconstitutionally coercive when members began public meetings with christian prayers asking the audience to join in. lauren green is here now with more. hi, lauren. >> hey, art. this has been a tradition for 50 years but now federal court has ruled that those christian prayers offered up at a

commissioner's meeting are unconstitutional and it could pave the way for a showdown in the u.s. supreme court. north carolina, the heart of the bible belt, had opened its commissioner's meeting with a prayer that often ended with in jesus name and invited those attending to join in. the liberties union filed a lawsuit on behalf of three of the residents who attended the meetings. >> if it opens in a way that makes me feel like i'm not one of those people, that this board of commissioners is speaking to and for, i'm feeling sort of disenfranchised in a way. >> on friday, the 4th u.s. circuit court of appeals ruled 10-5 against the prayers giving the majority opinion the judge wrote the prayer practice served to identify the government with christianity and risk conveying to citizens of minority faiths a message of exclusion. while the judge writing for the dissending opinion says the majority opinion strikes at religion seeking to outlaw most prayer given in government

assemblies even though such prayers have been an important part of the fabric of our democracy and civic life. the county hasn't decided yet if it will appeal to the u.s. supreme court. the high court has allowed such prayers in limited situations but in that 2014 case, the law make irs themselves were not -- the law makers themselves were not participating. art? arthel: i'm sure you will stay on top of it. we hope to have you back on. >> thanks. eric: that does it for us now. we're back tomorrow at 12:00, 4:00, and 6:00 p.m. arthel: those are eastern times. rob schmidt is up next with the fox report. have a great evening, everybody. eric: take care. where to go, and how to work around your uc. that's how i thought it had to be. but then i talked to my doctor about humira, and learned humira can help get and keep uc under control... when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections,

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the white house fighting tooth and nail for its stalled agenda but continuing revelations on russia weighing heavy on the west wing. i'm rob schmitt in for julie banderas you are watching the fox report. we are keeping a close eye as vice president mike pence prepares to take the stage in washington tonight delivering a keynote address at a conservative event later this hour. the president back here in the states after what was widely seen as a successful trip to paris. president trump taking in some of the women's u.s. open today at his golf club in new jersey but still dominating the news cycle his oldest son's meeting with the russian lawyer during the campaign. we are now learning that meeting