we'll pop up online. sign up on the live chat, drive the conversation, or watch us live on facebook as well. we can't wait for all of that. we'll do that. you'll come with us. right now, "happening now." >> fox news alert, awaiting the white house press briefing after the man whose job it is to shape president trump's message takes a shot at the white house chief of staff. >> interesting times. new white house communications director anthony scaramucci calls out reince priebus after information about his net worth gets reported. we're covering all news happening now. >> iran launches a rocket, carrying a satellite toward outer space as anticipation grows north korea might soon test another intercontinental ballistic missile. what's the u.s. response? plus, gun store smash-and-grabs are on the rise, and robberies bring fresh worries about public safety. >> anytime guns are illegally

placed on the street is a concern to the community, as well as law enforcement. >> also -- >> that plane nosedived straight into the ground. >> -- a deadly crash on a busy highway. it's all happening now. we begin with a fox news alert. we are awaiting a white house briefing as tensions between two of the president's top aides appear to be boiling over in a very public way. welcome to the second hour of "happening now." i'm jon scott. >> good to have you back. anthony scaramucci calling out chief of staff reince priebus on twitter, tagging him in a post railing against leakers, which he later deleted. no response from priebus. this as the senate where is its final hours of debate on a republican healthcare bill. lawmakers now mulling a skinny repeal of obamacare came up

short. >> white house correspondent kevin corke i joins us with mor. >> what's happening at the white house certainly rivals the popular tv series "game of thrones," only in this case this began, as you pointed out, after the financial disclosure form was i should by politico, belonging to anthony scaramucci. of course he went to twitter suggesting that it may have been leaked. he seemed upset about it. let me show you what he had to say in a deleted tweet first. he said, "in light of the leak of my financial disclosure info, a felony, i will be contacting the fbi and justice department." he includes reince priebus. now, that's obviously been deleted. when people were asking about it, saying what did you mean by all of that, were you calling out the chief of staff?

he tweeted this. "wrong. the tweet was public notice to all leakers that administration officials are helping to end the leaks." okay. that's the story. he's sticking to it right now. now, it no secret that the two men bring unique perspectives to the white house team. though they say they're friends, as has been suggested to me privately, they're not grilling buddies. still if he was suggesting that priebus was a leaker, that would be a distraction for a white house already trying to minimize them. >> i think most important part of anthony's tweet when he talked about the fbi and doj. he's making clear that even though the documents are eventually procurable publicly, that somebody doesn't want him here. and somebody is trying to get in his way and scare him off from working here, a huge mistake. >> wow, there you have it. a huge mistake, according to kellyanne conway. the politico reporter this morning said that the bank gave

her the financial disclosure form, quote, because i asked for it. there was no leak. now here's how this will likely play out this afternoon. we'll have a briefing on camera at 1:45. i suspect the white house will try to tamp down the eternal kerfuffle. we'll be hear for the briefing, and bring it to you right here. back to you. >> kevin corke at the white house. thank you, kevin. anthony scaramucci defends his tweet on "cnn this morning" saying his mention of federal law enforcement was strategic. >> you know what i like bringing up the department of justice and the fbi, people that have done things that are wrong makes them nervous, chris. i haven't done anything wrong. i'm not nervous at all. when people do things wrong, and you mentioned the fbi and the department of justice, you watch, i told president this morning, when the iceberg hits the boat the rats start flying

up from steerage, right? the water comes in from steerage. you mention the fbi and department of justice, watch how the rats lift in the boat. >> i understand, but the boat gets put into the iceberg. the iceberg does not hit the boat. my point of the analogy correction -- >> that's really cute. you're doing a good job this morning. that's a cute way to spin my feta-for. you get the point that i'm making. >> i'm making a point as well, which is if you have the fbi chasing down stuff like dirty politics, is that the best use their time? >> no, no, no. i'm trying to be careful this morning. if there's a illegallality or -- >> that's something different. >> i'm not asking about dirty politics. here's the laws. no laws have been broken. no fbi, no department of justice. i like mentioning them, because i know knee-knockers when i see them, and that you wil their knt

knocking. >> president trump keeps his own feud going with his attorney general, jeff sessions. former solicitor general ken starr addressing that in a "washington post" op-ed piece with the headline "mr. president, please cut it out." ken starr writes, quote, tweet to your heart's content, but stop the wildly inappropriate attacks on the attorney general, an honorable man who i have known since his days as u.s. attorney in alabama. jeff sessions has recently become your pinata in one of the most outrageous and pro foundly misguided courses of presidential contact i've witnessed in five decades in and around the nation's capital. what you are doing is harmful to your presidency, and inimical to our foundational commitment as a free people to the rule of law."

chris wallace joins us. chris, have you seen anything like this? >> no. nothing even close to it. in the middle of that interview with cnn, if you remember famously in his first press briefing last friday, anthony scaramucci said, well, look, reince and i are like brothers. brothers rough each other up. we all know that. i've been a brother. but then today he talked about cain and abel, and as i remember that didn't turn out so well. if that's his definition of brothers, there will be blood in the white house. >> jenna: no jaw bones lying around the -- >> jon: no jaw bones lying around. as this is getting done, there are important things not getting done. >> chris: exactly. when that's the headline, that's what we're talking about today

for the first, what, seven minutes of the show -- and if we weren't talk about that we'd be talking about jeff sessions and the president for the next four minutes of the show. you know, you've got healthcare. you've got tax reform. you've got a budget. you've got raising the debt limit. a lot of serious stuff. yes, there's the back-biting that goes in any white house and power struggles, but it goes on behind the scenes. it doesn't go on in public tweets. it doesn't go in cable news interviews. that's the big difference here. anthony scaramucci at one point said he doesn't knives people in the back, he knives them in front. that's true. i suppose there's a certain honor to that. but, boy, it sure is getting people off the message of what they could be doing, what congress should be doing, what the president should be doing to actually help the american people. >> jon: the point has been made that scaramucci answers directly to the president. he bypasses reince priebus. that's an unusual arrangement,

isn't it, for the chief of communications, to bypass the chief of staff. >> chris: i've never heard of it. i mean generally speaking of chief of staff is called the chief of staff because he's the chief of all of the white house staff. that is not apparently the case here. so that does raise the question, which i think you're getting at, is when anthony scaramucci calls out priebus this way, is he freelancing or doing this at the behest of his new boss? one assumes if the president doesn't like it, he'll put an end to it pretty quickly. my guess is, the president, whether heed it or not, is probably okay with it, wants to shake up his staff and wants to make sure that everybody realizes, as anthony scaramucci said that leaking will not be tolerated in this white house anymore. there has been -- yes, a lot of leaks by intel committees and law enforcement, and the intelligence community, but there's been an unbelievable amount of leaking that can only have come from people inside the white house.

>> jon: in the meantime there's this effort in the senate judiciary committee to insulate robert mueller, the special counsel, investigating any russian dealings involving the trump campaign. senator lindsey graham, a republican obviously, richard blumenthal, from connecticut, a democrat, proposing legislation that would protect the independent counsel, not allow him to be fired without congressional approval. does that, do you think, stand a chance of going anywhere? >> chris: i even wonder whether that has -- i mean, you'd have to pass a whole new law, because under the current law the -- he's a member of the executive branch. he isn't a truly independent counsel. he's a special counsel. that was because the independent counsel law lapsed. you'd have to make it a completely different law to make it independent and therefore not subject to being fired from within the administration. i will say, lindsey graham has

not hidden anything about it. he's indicated publicly that it will be catastrophic politically if the president fires -- in his opinion, if the president fires jeff sessions as attorney general, but that it might be the end of the trump presidency, as he put it if he were to fire robert mueller. that would be his second lead investigative person he would have fired, and, you know, that will be interesting to see. there's been talk about the possibility, if sessions doesn't go voluntarily, the president reportedly has at least mused about the possibility of letting him go and putting in a recess appointment when congos in recess in august, but congress -- congress goes in recess in august, but if they hold sessions at least every several week, they're not on recess. and chuck grassley, the chairman of the senate judiciary, said, if this attorney general goes, there will not be a replacement brought up before the senate judiciary committee in 2017.

so it really does seem like members of the senate, both republicans and democrats, are sending a warning shot to the president, you don't want to fire jeff sessions. >> jon: i'm sure it's going to be an interesting "fox news sunday" coming up. >> chris: i was going to say, do you think? yes, it is. we've got an embarrassment of riches. we'll be talking both to the white house and what's going on in congress. let's get to issues like healthcare. by this point on sunday they may have passed the skinny repeal, and be in a conference in the house on what they'll do with boone. >> jon: and we've got north korea and iran launching missiles. >> chris: do you remember that show "car 54 where are you?," the riot in the bronx? feels like that. the justice department filing a

brief in a discrimination lawsuit being considered by a new york appeals court. it involves a skydiving instructor claims he was fired after telling one. his clients that he was gay. he says his 2010 dismissal violates the civil rights act, which bars the discrimination based on color, religion, race, sex or national origin, but the doj noted that every counsel since 1974 has declined to add a sexual orientation provision to the civil rights act, going on to say that the federal government as the largest employer in the country has substantial interests in this case. >> jon: we are awaiting the white house briefing scheduled to start about 30 minutes from now. will the trump administration react to a showdown shaping up between the new white house communications director anthony scaramucci and the chief of staff, reince priebus. plus, republicans are racing against the clock as they debate yet another measure to repeal

obamacare. can they pull it off this time? and a fiery plane crash on a highway. now we're hearing the dramatic 9-1-1 call. >> it looks like a total loss. i watched it actually hit the freeway. >> i don't see how anyone could have survived that. >> i watched it going down. we all want restful sleep.

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>> mike: they've made a bold prediction about the skinny repeal? >> look at the individual mandate, the employer mandate. something in my view there's never been a constitutional basis for. eliminating the mandates would be a significant step. there may very well be 50 republicans, or 52 republicans, willing to duo that. >> mike: there's intense pressure on susan collins of maine and lisa murkowski of alaska, voting against taking up healthcare reform. murkowski confirmed today she spoke with president trump, and the interior secretary, ryan zinke, where it's reported he threatened her. >> lisa murkowski is doing her best to represent her constituents, and that i will

respect and honor even if it is not in line with what the administration wishes she would do. >> mike: we expect at some point later today for senators to vote on a range of amendments, what they call in the senate a vote-a-rama, and passion is building at this critical stage on the senate floor. >> >> 22 million, 23 million people off health insurance without hearing from doctors, patient advocates, hospital administrators. but no, that's not where the republicans are. >> mike: timing is uncertain at this stage. even most republican senators don't seem to know. at this point most are expecting a late night. melissa? >> melissa: we'll be here. thank you. mike emanuel, thank you. jon? >> jon: right now we're hearing the dramatic 9-1-1 calls after a fiery plane crash on a utah highway. the light plane narrowly missed

cars on i-15, but killed the two couples on board. >> that plane nosedived straight into the ground. it just exploded. it was going and it barrel-rolled right over and went straight into the ground. >> jon: no injuries reported on the ground, but the crash created a commuter headache because it closed most of the lanes of interstate 15 in riverdale during yesterday evening's rush. >> melissa: we are awaiting the white house briefing scheduled to start in about 20 minutes from now. reporters are expected to ask about the growing rift between the president's communications director anthony scaramucci and his chief of staff reince priebus. plus, iran launches a rocket toward space. are tighter sanctions key to stopping the islamic republic or is tougher action needed? we'll talk to a republican member of the house foreign affairs committee. that's next. >> you would have thought they would have said, thank you, united states, we really love

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>> melissa: iran upping the ante in its showdown with the u.s. and the west as fox news confirms that tehran has launched a rocket toward space. this latest provocation could be a breakthrough for iran's weapons program. meanwhile there are growing concerns about north korea as it marks the 64th anniversary of the korean armistice today. u.s. officials say they are seeing increasing activity suggesting pyongyang is getting ready for another missile test. all this as the house passes sweeping sanctions, targeting

iran, north korea, and russia, and restricting president trump's ability to ease those sanctions on his own without congressional approval. russian officials attacking the bill, saying it ends all hopes of improving relations with the u.s. let's bring in republican congressman ted yoho. thanks for joining us. these are worrisome times, when you look at the latest developments, two rockets being launch and tested. what do you make of it? >> ted: it's justification for tougher sanctions, and congressional oversight to relax these on russia. >> melissa: are sanctions going to have a big impact at this

point? i know you're trying to choke off the money they'd be using to fund these programs, and in some cases fund terror, but it seems we may be beyond that. >> ted: let's hope not. let's hope we can get the sanctions in place, that we can get a diplomatic settlement to this. if we continue down this path, as we've seen iran has been emboldened by the transfer of the $400 million, making them stronger, which has made hezbollah stronger, funding terrorism and promote terrorist groups. you see what's happened with north korea. north korea is trading with our supposedly allies that are hopefully going to bring this to an end like china, but we've seen their trade with chinas up over 300% in the first quarter of this year. so we've got to be able to put more sanctions on people, on these countries. we need to have a world community come in and help us bring this to a resolve. we can't continue down this path as you said. there's a lot of hotbeds and

fires going around the world now. >> melissa: north korea is still getting assistance from china. obviously the president has tried to engage china to help curb what is going on in north korea, but that's not happening. the kim regime doesn't seem to respond any sort of diplomacy. in terms of sanctions, you know, he's fine with his people starving. so it doesn't seem like there's a lot of progress on that front beyond something a lot more forceful. >> ted: there's really nod. we've been down this road before. we saw what the clinton administration did in the '90s, what george bush's administration did, and even president obama's. every time that we work out a negotiation with north korea, before the ink's dry, they've already broken the agreement. and in the meantime they've gotten closer to developing a full-functioning icbm. the next step is being able to carry a nuclear warhead. that's going to destabilize the world more. we have to come together and

have ways to put this regime under control. not that we want to control them. we just don't want the aggressive nature they're coming out with. as you said, they've got people starving. they're using their own citizens as slaves they farm out to other countries, and the money goes back to the kim regime, who turns around and uses that money to create weapons that they sell to terrorist groups around the world that are fighting us. it's lunacy. >> melissa: yeah. you put sort of a fine point on the part of this bill that limits the president's power to ease these sanctions without your approval. do you really think that's necessary? it feels like you're buying into the whole idea of the president having a special relationship with russia when in fact, you know, he's done everything to drive down the price of oil, which hurts russia. you know, there was the tomahawk missiles in syria, which hurt russia. all kinds of things. >> ted: no. i think it's very important that we do that for a couple reasons. one, if you look at what russia

did, when they marched into crimea and took it over, they used their energy policies, their abundance of energy, as a geopolitical tool to put pressure on people that they sell to. so that's a commerce issue that congress does have the oversight of. i think the 30-day period that congress has to weigh in, i think it's a safeguard that will make those sanctions stronger. we want to make sure we don't roll them back too configure. >> melissa: congressman, thank you for coming on. we appreciate your time. >> ted: appreciate you having me. have a great day. >> jon: insurance companies say they're in a tough spot. how it could affect you and your wallet. plus, is former senate colleagues strongly defending attorney general jeff sessions amid reports the white house is working on plans to part ways with the ag. our panel is up next to discuss. >> he's a great patriot. he's a good conservative. he's trying to serve the

president well. at the end of the day, if you believe jeff sessions is not the right guy, sorry, quit humiliating this good man. he deserves better. once upon a time a girl with golden locks broke into a house owned by three bears. she ate some porridge, broke the baby bear's chair, and stole some jewelry, a flat-screen tv, and a laptop. luckily the geico insurance agency had helped the bears with homeowners insurance. they were able to replace all their items... ...including a new chair from crate and barrel. call geico and see how easy it is to switch and save on homeowners insurance. copdso to breathe better,athe. i go with anoro. ♪go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way" with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains

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time was of the essence and i who was this guy? . what were his intentions? > >> what goes on between the attorney general and the president, i'm not privy to. i'm going to say jeff sessions is a man of integrity. he's a man of purpose. he's a man of substance.

>> the president is trying to not use his power. he's trying to get sessions to quit. i hope sessions doesn't quit. >> jeff sessions is an honorable man. he did what i believe any ethical attorney general would do. i really think this is a distraction and will make it more difficult for the president to accomplish his agenda until it's resolved. i'd encourage them to get together. >> jon: senate republicans coming out squarely in support of jeff sessions, who used to be among their number. as president trump keeps up a war of words with his own attorney general. with a new "washington post" report saying the president is privately discussing a recess appointment to replace sessions should he resign. joining us now, isaac wright, former executive director for correct the record super pac, a pro-clinton super pac in 2016. adam goodman is a republican campaign strategist and an edward r. murrow fellow at tufts university. thank you so much for being here. adam, if the president really

wants a new attorney general, why not just fire him? >> i can tell you public opinion is never in recess, as we talk about a recess appointment. jon, here's what the president, if he would take our advice, should do. there's a remedy. one, instead of tweeting that the attorney general meet with him, sit down and still see if you have common ground moving forward. if not, i agree with lindsey graham and other senators, give him a graceful exit. finally, regardless of what you decide to do, my advice to the president is as much as you're asking the american people to have confidence in you, show the same confidence in the team that you put around you, that i think is full of tremendous talent, and he was proud of going in. >> jon: isaac, the recess appointment would require the senate to be in recess, and democrats have indicated they're going to use some parliamentary maneuverings to keep the senate in session even though basically nobody is coming to work. >> i think that's the goal, to try to not let the president rig the system.

i mean, this whole mess sounds -- it tells a truck load about the president's character. for one, his weakness, his lack of backbone. if he wants to fire sessions, man up and fire sessions. don't just stick around and taunt the man on twitter like you're trying to be a playground bully and you're not tough enough to do anything about it. second, it tells us a lot about his ethics. what is the president hiding that he feels like he has to rig the system for investigators not to find, and why does he feel he has to go around the system to do it? >> jon: the notion of him firing sessions, it doesn't seem like there's much support in congress, even among republicans for that idea. adam? >> there isn't. certainly in the lead-in to this, this program, you saw the senators. one after another after another, jon, showing that they admire jeff sessions. they think he's made of

tremendous moral fiber, a great contributor to very important conversations in the senate. they have a lot of love for this guy. i think there's a right way and wrong way frankly to, you might say, change personnel if you're the president. i think the president should hear these voices and move down a better track, if he is not going to retain jeff sessions. i think hes -- owe certainly as lindsey graham and others have said -- the dignity of a graceful exit. >> jon: isaac, sessions may be taking public humiliation from the president, but says he enjoys the job, getting some things done, rounding up ms-13 gangs, cracking down on illegal immigration, that kind of thing. >> sessions not resigning has shown more backbone and integrity than president trump has shown in this situation. it's pregnant at a minimum to see a president who is demanding that a member of his cabinet do something that is likely unethical and possibly criminal in order to try to cover up the president's own actions and to

stop the investigation of the president. >> jon: you're talking about the potential dismissal of the special counsel, robert mueller? >> correct, right. >> jon: another topic, republican senator lisa murkowski southbound of alaska confirmed earlier reports that the interior secretary ryan zinke called to express white house displeasure with her position on healthcare. listen. >> i did have a conversation with the secretary. and he told me what i really knew, which was that the president wasn't pleased with the -- sorry, i'm looking for which room i'm going to -- wasn't pleased with the vote that i had taken, and i knew that. i had had a conversation with the president. >> jon: the president also put her in his twitter sights, tweeting senator murkowski of

the great state of alaska really let the republicans and our country down yesterday. too bad. this because she did not vote in favor of the repeal of obamacare that the president was eager to see happen. adam, every president twists some arms. this president seems to like to do it publicly. is that helpful? well, it's happening, whether it's helpful or not. i can tell you, anything an elected representative does or doesn't say, does or doesn't do, is open for second-guessing and obviously criticism. in this situation, senator murkowski, she's campaigned for repeal of obamacare. she has voted for repeal of obamacare. i think it's more than a little frustrating for other members of the republican caucus, and for everyone looking at the healthcare debate, who feel there's sig problems with obamacare, that she -- significant problems with obamacare, that she doesn't seem to be going to the starting line, showing the backbone she

campaigned on when she ran for re-election. >> jon: there's a bit of tit for tat going on, too, the reports that senator murkowski then essentially held up nominees for secretary zinke's interior department. obviously the interior department responsible for running huge amounts of alaska, the state she represents. adam, you can threaten a u.s. senator, but they have their own ways to get back the you. >> absolutely. this is a game where we all race around the same track, and eventually whatever we've done before catches up with us. senator murkowski, you know, is a respected member of the senate. she obviously has an independent mind. you know, she described it, jon, this was a difficult conversation she had with secretary zinke, but not an unusual one. >> jon: isaac, i guess you come down on senator murkowski's side on this one. >> she voted with the people of her state, the people who elected her to that office, and

she voted with them instead of the president and the rest of the republican party. i think the president, instead of trying to figure out how to intimidate her, should figure out why the proposals are so bad for he her constituents that she has to vote against them. >> jon: thank you. >> melissa: the future of healthcare, and republicans may have to settle too a slimmed-down version of their plan after two failed proposals to repeal obamacare. one major insurer says all the uncertainty is affecting the industry. gerri willis is live in new york city with all the details on this. gerri? >> a proposal to scale back the affordable care act, the so-called skinny option, getting

rid of obamacare manned dates, could push push rates higher if passed, according to blue cross/blue shield association, a major insurer on healthcare exchanges. here's what they said. quote, if there's no longer a requirement for everyone to purchase coverage, it is critical that any legislation includes strong incentives for people to obtain health insurance, and keep the year-round. a system that allows them to purchase only when they need it drives up costs for everyone. the ceo of anthem said if the company doesn't get more certainty about the future of the exchanges, well, it will further narrow our level of participation. anthem is the largest for-profit company in the blue cross blue concealed association. swedish, the ceo, emphasized the need for cost-sharing reduction payments for 2018, and without them, said, the insurer may boost rates 18% to 20%. as i throw it back to you, melissa, you got to consider

aetna and humana, already dropping out of the exchanges. everybody waiting to see if more do the same thing. >> melissa: when they say more cost sharing, that's translated to taxpayer dollars. they want more of our money. gerri, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> jon: the president's new transgender ban. there's speculation it's more about politics than policy. and what the white house press secretary will have to say next. ) no. with claim rateguard your rates won't go up just because of a claim. i totally could've - no! switching to allstate is worth it.

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>> melissa: as we await the white house briefing set to start any moment, there's new fallout from the president's new transgender ban, which seemed to take a lot of people at the pentagon by surprise, and sparked outrage among some

lawmakers, with chuck schumer, the senate majority leader tweeting we already have transgender people serving in our military, and we will regardless of what the president says or does. others speculating that president trump may be using the ban to distract the ban from other issues. do you think? like the russia investigation, the healthcare battle, or his attacks on attorney general jeff sessions. joining us now is howard kerr, fox news media analyst. howie, before we get to that, i understand you've been doing reporting on the whole anthony scaramucci situation. >> right. the conventional wisdom is that scaramucci committed a misstep when he seemed to insinuate, to blame reince priebus for the leak of scaramucci's own personal financial information having to do with millions of dollars he made at his former hedge fund, because it wasn't a leak. it was based on a publicly available financial disclosure documents. what my sources are telling me, this is what scaramucci wanted to do. he wanted to raise questions

about reince priebus. they are rivals, increasingly bitter rivals in the white house. and insinuate that priebus is behind a lot of leaks. in a cnn interview this morning, he doubled-down and said reince could address his own role in any leaking. i'm told the president is pleased by this. the larger question here is who not who has the upper hand in the internal power struggles within the white house, but whether or not scaramucci is going to be empowered enough to start firing people as he has threatened who are responsible for leaks in an effort to crack down on a lot of damaging leaks, some of which make the president look bad. he sees that as his mandate. >> melissa: when you says the president is pleased by this, what does that mean? does he want to get rid of reince priebus, that what you're saying, or does he want to put pressure on people -- i don't know. why would he be pleased? i don't want to put words in your mouth. >> sure. i'm not saying the president is pleased about getting rid of reince priebus. he could do that tomorrow if he

wanted to. there's been stories circulating about his future. he likes scaramucci, a new kid on the block, a new york businessman like trump who doesn't mince words. he likes the crusade that scaramucci is on. he likes the crackdown on leaks. he's been very troubled by the leaks, some very damaging to his presidency. scaramucci obviously wouldn't be doing this if he didn't at least have the tacit approval of his new boss. >> melissa: i want to move to the tweet about transgender people serving in the military. it's been my theory since the campaign that when the president throws a molotov cocktail out there that seems to be related to nothing that anyone is talking about right now, that it's a shiny object distraction, and the press goes chasing after it full speed, and he knows that, because he's a marketing master, and this is what it was design to do. now some people are saying the same thing about the transgender issue, where he tweeted, and it seems like he's not trying to affect policy anyway. there's not really an opportunity to do that.

what's the theory there? what do you think? >> the commander in chief does set the policy. this may be in part a distraction. it's a serious issue. at the same time it's an issue that has great appeal to the christian right. there's politics involved obviously. it seems to me the president knew he had to know it would be a thunderous condemnation of this within the main street media, as well as politicians. what's hurting him in the coverage, everyones playing the tape from the campaign, where he says he will fight for the reports of lgbtq people. the amount of money saved on medical costs is less than the money the military saves on viagra. sarah huckabee sanders couldn't say where the thousands of transgender people now serving in the military would have to be expelled. they don't have many answers to this bombshell. >> melissa: howard, thank you. >> jon: it was a window of opportunity for some thieves.

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>> hi, everyone. i'm julie bandaras, awaiting the white house briefing set to begin any moment now. our own be bret baier will tee t up. plus, the war at the white house between anthony scaramucci and reince priebus. we'll also be hearing what some former military members currently in congress think about the president's ban on transgenders serving in military. now the joint chiefs saying there is no change. what does that mean? keep it right here for "america's news headquarters." >> jon: right now police in colorado are trying to track down the thieves behind a

smash-and-grab at a gun store. tests like this one are on the rise nationwide. here's details. >> jon, a 175% increase over the past year, according to the a.t.f., for these types of crimes, a major threat to the public. often the bad guys will smash through the front door with a stolen vehicle like they did the at the sunshine state armory in zephryhills, florida, last year. they take off with as many guns as they can. in chantilly, virginia, it took only 48 seconds for thieves to make off with 35 weapons. in rockville, maryland, two men smashed the glass cases and pulled stuff off the wall. they stole more than 30 weapons. the atf says these are often by organized gangs, targeting a shop. in 2012, there are close to 8500

incidents. the aft offers a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. the smash-and-grab in littleton, colorado, no arrests after 20 semiautomatic rifles were taken from a store there. the atf says there's no security regulations on gun stores, only recommendations. the atf say they don't know why is this happening. jon? >> jon: alicia, thank you. >> melissa: we are awaiting the white house daily briefing set to start at an moment. we'll bring it to you live as soon as it happens. ♪

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see why millions of people have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. don't wait. call now. >> and away they go. >> the one-two -- >> jon: in our final 30 it's the running of the wiener dog. little datsuns running as fast as their legs can carry them in a race in california.

>> melissa: they're so cute. proceeds from the race go to benefit a no-kill shelter? orange county. >> jon: did slinky win? i hope so. >> melissa: how could you tell? thanks for joining us. >> jon: america's news headquarters begins right now. >> julie: we begin with a fox news alert. we are awaiting the start of the white house press briefing. it should be quite a show on camera today. again, hello, everyone. good afternoon i'm julie banderas. we are expecting the healthcare bill, the leak, and the sessions and the war in the white house feud. now we're getting word about the president's tweet about a transgender ban won't be implemented from now with the joint chief of staffs just issuing a statement saying just that. we are going to talk to you about that would have got you covered with senator tom. we will talk to him live.