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tv   Shepard Smith Reporting  FOX News  August 9, 2017 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT

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>> shepard: two major stories developing now at noon on the west coast, 3:00 in washington. 3:30 a.m. thursday in north korea, pyongyang. a call for calm from rex tillerson. even action president trump sends a message to the dictator, kim jong-un, about america's nuclear arsenal. ahead, the rhetoric, the reality and reaction. in moments, i'll speak with a former u.s. defense secretary william cohen about america's options, north korea's forces and what needs to happen next. plus, the second big story developing today and new to us, the fbi raided a home of president trump's former campaign manager, paul manafort. ahead, what we know about the investigation.
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let's get to it. first from the fox news deck, secretary of state rex tillerson calls for calm as president trump is bragging about his nuclear arsenal. that's after we got word from intelligence officials that north korea can make missile ready nuclear weapons. the "washington post" broke the story. fox news has confirmed it. this morning the president tweeted, "my first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. it's far more stronger and more powerful. hopefully we never have to use the power but there will never be a time when we're not the most powerful nation in the world." it was president obama that took steps to modernize the army before president trump took office. it was a $1 trillion project over 30 years.
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but the president's budget made cuts to defense. president trump's new tweets came after he threatened to unleash fire, fury and power against north korea. that was just yesterday. those comments were met with bipartisan criticism. some lawmakers said president trump's rhetoric might only make the problem worse. reports indicate his team was not aware in advance that the threats were coming and there's nothing to indicate that the president consulted with our vulnerable allies in the region. now north korean officials say they're looking into plans to attack the u.s. territory of guam threatening to launch missiles that would create what pyongyang calls enveloping fire about the island. thousands of troops are in guam. it's approximately 2,100 miles from north korea and reachable by their weapons. secretary of state rex tillerson is in guam this morning and he
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attempted to bring order and calm. the secretary of state said this was a planned refuelling trim and there's no imminent threat. tillerson said he's not worried about the latest threats between president trump and north korea. he talked to reporters during a flight. the sound quality isn't perfect but here it is. >> i think americans should sleep well at night, have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days. what the president was aforming, the united states has the capability to fully defend itself from any attack and defend our allies and we will do so. >> shepard: yet no president has ever used similar rhetoric. secretary tillerson repeated as relates to north korea. he's repeated his call for opening talks with the north if it stops testing missiles. the messages from leaders are all over the place. james mattis issued a harsh warning to north korea saying the dictator kim jong-un would lose any arms race with the
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united states. in a statement today, secretary mattis also said north korea should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people. moments ago, reporters asked the state department spokeswoman about the seemingly conflicting statements from the trump administration. >> i think the united states and some of you may disagree with us, but the united states is on the same page. whether it's the white house, the state department, the department of defense, we're speaking with one voice. the world is in fact speaking with one voice. >> i want to show you in our wall a look at the possible ranges of a north korean strike based on a missile test that happened last month. defense experts say major cities including new york city over here, chicago and los angeles are all in range as alaska could be. all of this based on that new missile test. let's get to rich edson who is live at the state department.
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the briefing just wrapping up. >> should be wrapping up soon, chef. in this briefing, the state department is trying to square fire, fury and power with americans should sleep easy tonight. the remarks of the president of the united states and the secretary of state. to that, the state department is saying basically what the administration is trying to do is speak from multiple approaches. >> there are lots of ways we believe to get through to kim jong-un and his regime. okay? our issue is not with the people of the dprk. it's with the regime itself. that message has been strongly sent throughout this administration. when the president and secretary mattis and secretary tillerson agreed the top security issue for the united states would in fact be the safety of security of americans. >> we asked the state department consulted on language and the tone that the president used in those remarks yesterday. the state department would only say the secretary of state did speak to the president
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afterwards on his way back from that trip he took to asia, shep. >> shepard: to be clear, he wasn't aware that language was coming in advance. this issue is my understanding really dominated secretary tillerson's trip to asia. >> absolutely. he's returning from several days in asia. part of what the administration has been calling its pressure campaign to try to cut off north korea diplomatically and economically from the rest of the world. this effort according to the secretary of state is now beginning to be felt by north korea. >> i think in fact the pressure is starting to show. i think that's why the rhetoric coming out of pyongyang is beginning to become louder and more threatening. whether we have them backed in a corner or not is difficult to say. diplomatically you never like to have someone in a corner without a way for them to get out. >> tillerson notes he spoke with russia and china during the trip and he notes that russia and china have open lines of communication with north korea. secretary of state says he's hoping those two countries use those open communications to get
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north korea to slow all of this weapons development and testing. shep? >> rich edson from the statement department. thank you. let's go to william cohen, senator and u.s. defense secretary under president clinton. secretary, thank you. >> good to be with you. >> shepard: a number of things to go through here. let's start with the rhetorical flourishes. the president said unleash fire and fury. your thoughts on the rhetoric used. >> i think we have to take care. the president uses language that is sometimes beyond being realistic and is actually inflammatory. it's important -- >> shepard: is that one of those cases? >> i think so. it's important that he sends a strong signal to the north koreans that we're ready to defend our interest, our allies and the united states. >> we have a capability that could destroy north korea. how you say it makes a difference. to say that if you threaten us, issue anymore threats, we're going to respond with fire and
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fury, well, that seems to indicate that if they even suggest as they have now that they're going to attack guam that we take military action. i don't think that's what he meant. that could be interpreted by the north koreans and therefore precipitate something that they didn't plan on doing. words are important. i think the words to look at are secretary tillerson saying step back a minute, take a breath here and let's rest united states tonight. we can contain this situation, we're moving forward with economic sanctions. they're really starting to hurt. i want to get the attention of the north koreans and the chinese and the russians. tell the south korean president, put the thaad system back on track. he suspended it. that's one things that gets the attention of the chinese and the russians and offer it to the japanese as well. you have the destroyers and the missiles in japan. put a thaad system there. that will get the attention of the folks in the region coupled
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with more sanctions. that's the way to get the attention of the north koreans. >> shepard: is it our understanding, mr. secretary, is defense secretary and secretary of state, others in his cabinet, also none of our allies in the region, none of those people were aware that this rhetoric was coming? your thoughts on the lack of process there? >> again, there is an interagency process that i'm aware of that is systematic so that everybody is on the same page. it's not enough in my opinion for the state department spokesperson -- she did a fine job, by the way. i have not seen her before. she did a fine job trying to reconcile all the different statements that appear to be made. it's more helpful if you have a statement which is clear, crisp and credible. if that is the case, everybody is on the page. we know what the president is going to say and we can validate it and re-affirm it. when you have different people saying different things, then reporters like yourself will
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obviously ask questions. what does this mean? is it ambiguous? is ambiguity a good things? there a couple of things here for me. dean atchison, one of our great secretary of states, henry kissinger wrote this in his memoirs. he said a bluff if taken seriously can be helpful, a serious threat that is taken as a bluff can be catastrophic. those words are really important to make sure that we're not seen as bluffing. someone will call that bluff or we're doing something seriously but it's not taken seriously. that can all end in a catastrophe. we have to be clear and concise and precise in terms of what we intend to do and to send that message coupled with the economic and diplomatic messages. that's the way to get a result. >> shepard: secretary cohen, you said using the rhetoric and not following through as you put it, north korea threatens guam would be evidence of a bluff? are you suggesting this was a bluff and it's been proven to be
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so? >> if the president says if you threaten us again or our territories or our allies, it will be met with fire and fury. the north koreans issued another threat. what does that mean? does that mean we attack tomorrow or the next month or when ever? that would look as we're not going to follow-through, it looks as if it was a bluff. you can only bluff so many times. and i think what we have to have is a serious communication so that the north koreans know we're not bluffing. if they take action, which is going to put us in jeopardy, then we will respond in a very forceful way. i think that's the message that has to get through. >> shepard: are you concerned this bluff has ratcheted up tensions and north korea could act irresponsibly as a result of? >> i think secretary tillerson has calmed the waters for the time being. his communications with the chinese and the russians and their communications will calm the waters for the time being.
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will this stop the north koreans from pursuing and trying to develop more missile capability that will threaten the united states? no. that's why we have to really kind of tighten the sanctions around north korea in a way that really doesn't allow them to have guns and butter. they have the guns, but they also have had the butter thanks to their friends from china and russia and elsewhere. that's the butter we have to shut down. north korea, can they survive if they have widespread deprivation of economic assistance? can they survive under those circumstances? i think the message has to be you won't and you can't and you may have a revolt from within. so i think that message goes forward and then we say, but don't even think about attacking us. we have a defense system. we have defense systems in the region. we're prepared to use those if you ever think of attacking us. >> >> shepard: is president trump based on your situation,
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properly handling the situation? >> i think the president has to take greater care with the use of his words. i know that his supporters feel he's speaking up as a tough man. we want more toughness. but that's more school yard taunting. my guns are bigger and better than your guns. so back off, fellow. i don't think that works. i don't think that works with the north koreans. i think they'll just up the ante and say okay, prove your guns are bigger than ours. the way you get their attention as i mentioned before, squeeze them like a python. squeeze their economy. squeeze them with diplomacy as we have successfully done. president trump needs to get credit for this. >> shepard: so the school yard taunting made matters worse, not better? >> i don't think it improved it. they have been dissipated in terms of the impact that secretary tillerson calmed it down. >> shepard: william cohen. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> shepard: ahead, push back from the white house after
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report's that president trump's comments about fire and fury in north korea caught his team off guard. that's the first big story today. the second is an apparent expansion of the russian probe. we'll have that coming next. this is joanne. her long day as a hair stylist starts with shoulder pain when... hey joanne, want to trade the all day relief of 2 aleve with 6 tylenol? give up my 2 aleve for 6 tylenol? no thanks. for me... it's aleve. your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance.
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>> shepard: continuing coverage. president trump's response to north korea's latest threat. the white house responding to reports that the president's warning about fire and fury like
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the world has never seen caught u.s. officials completely off guard. our senior correspondent rick leventhal from bridgewater, new jersey, not far from the president's golf club where he is vacationing now. rick? >> shep, we got that statement just over an hour against from the white house in response to "the new york times" among others reporting that the fire and fury warning was unscripted, caught some off guard. the statement coming from the white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders who said that the white house chief of staff, general kelly and others on the national security were aware of the tone of the statement prior to the delivery. the words were his own. the tone and the strength were discussed beforehand. they and general kelly and the nsa team were clear the president was going to respond to the north korea's threats with a strong message in no uncertain terms. the white house knew a statement was coming. they didn't know what the president was going to say. >> shepard: what has the administration done in response
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to north korea so far? >> well, aside from the sanctions, the military on the island of guam has been heating up. the u.s. military sense of b-1 bombers on another long range mission over the korean peninsula. this is the second time in the last ten days. they were flanked by korean and japanese fighter jets. they were the -- the b-1s launched from guam, which is home to 150,000 u.s. citizens and military personnel. there's a sprawling set of military bases there. guam has been called a permanent aircraft carrier because of the fighter jets staged there and the b-1 bombers and fast attack subs and the thaad missile defense system which the military boasts 15 for 15 in tests. so the people on guam are hopeful if there was an attack, the thaad system would protect them. nobody wants to see that happen.
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>> rick levinthal in new jersey. and the witch hunt is getting more serious. the feds raided the home of up trump's campaign chairman. it was a surprise search that happened predawn. we'll talk with judge andrew napolitano next. new warnings of an active hurricane season. rick has more. >> here's the topical tropical activity in an average season. we peaked about september 10th. we're just right here. you can see the majority of the activity happens after this date. because of that, we have already had six storms named this year. now noaa is predicting 14 to 19 storms. 2 to 5 of them major hurricanes. we haven't had any major hurricanes so far. they've all been tropical storms. it's likely about to charm. this is tropical storm franklin
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moving towards mexico, vera cruz, likely becoming a category one hurricane overnight. we will also watch out here across the tropics, shep, one system here moving towards the eastern seaboard next week. likely staying offshore, but certainly having some impacts. we'll continue to track them right here. now "shepard smith reporting" will be right back. liberty mutual stood with me
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>> shepard: 23 minutes passed the hour. fox news has confirmed fbi agents raided one of the homes of the former trump campaign manager, paul manafort. his spokesman said manafort cooperated. "the washington post" broke the news about the raid. the paper reported that it happened on july 26 in alexandria, virginia before sunrise with no warning. we had no idea it was happening at the time. on that very same day, president
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trump tweeted why didn't attorney general sessions replace the acting fbi director andrew mccabe, a comey friend in charge of the clinton investigation but got big dollars for his wife's political run from hillary clinton and her representatives? a statement that have been deem dubious. nevertheless, it continues, drain the swamp. the fbi has been investigating paul manafort for his work in the ukraine. he's also being looked in the investigation of the russian interference in the presidential election. judge andrew napolitano is here. good to see you. >> good to see you, shep. >> shepard: my understanding is it went down like this: there's cooperation on one day. >> yes. >> shepard: he speaks to the counsel. he speaks to robert mueller. >> when you say "he", manafort's lawyer is in a relationship with
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robert mueller. we need this, we need that. >> shepard: cooperating. >> correct. they're speaking together one day and suddenly out of the blue, predawn, the fbi shows up and raids the house and carts off documents and laptops and other materials they're looking for that means the following. in order to do that, they needed a search warrant. in order to do that, a team of fbi agents and prosecutors went to the chambers of a federal judge and persuaded her that they could not get what they were looking for via this cooperation. either the lawyer, an excellent lawyer and former federal prosecutor himself, either manafort's lawyer wouldn't cooperate or manafort's lawyer couldn't control manafort and the fbi was concerned that what they were looking for would soon be missing. hence this almost unheard of because manafort had a lawyer who was working with them, predawn raid to seize these documents.
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this tells me there's a there there. they had to explain to a federal judge critical curious federal judge what they needed, why they needed it and why they couldn't get it from a grand jury subpoena. >> shepard: after that happened, the president began tweeting. >> the president stopped referring to the investigation as a witch hunt and his lawyer tweeted that he, the lawyer, the president's outside lawyer now, has begun communicating on a regular basis and cooperating with robert mueller. in the course of his cooperation with robert mueller, he said by the way, my client respects you and sends his greetings. not necessarily unheard of to say that to the prosecutor, but a remarkable and dynamic change in attitude of the president of the united states towards this investigation, which for months he's called a witch hunt. >> shepard: based on your experience, judge, and you've
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signed these early morning raid orders before as a superior court judge in new jersey, what is the process going forward after such a raid regarding manafort and the bigger picture? >> the evidence that they obtained will be examined and sort of put in whatever puzzle they're putting together. and then it will be explained to a grand jury and probably seek an indictment of somebody. their m.o., the standard operating procedure of federal prosecutors is to indict lower level people, even on extraneous crimes. >> shepard: like manafort. >> correct. they could persuade him, hey, if you tell us know about this other stuff, the charges could be reduced or the indictment or the jail time exposure would be reduced. that's the standard federal operating procedure. what we're witnessing, just getting snippets of this, because this all happens below the radar screen.
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we didn't know about this raid till this morning. took place two weeks ago. what we're witnessing is a highly professional aggressive but by the book federal criminal investigation run by bob mueller. >> shepard: now with paul manafort, the beginning of the process of trying to get more information not just about his activities but the activities of the president? >> the day the president said to bob mueller keep your hands off the trump organization, the very next day, mueller obtained from the grand jury a subpoena for all the banks that do business with the trump organization. so we don't know what he's looking for. we know if you look at an investigation as a series of circles, this keeps going out farther and farther from the center to see what they can find and how these pieces of the puzzle will fit. >> shepard: to be clear, this began as a counter intelligence investigation. >> yes.
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>> shepard: you're saying it's plain and simple a criminal investigation. >> i am and it is. we know that for certain from the confirmation of the fbi raid. >> shepard: judge, thank you. >> you're welcome, shep. >> shepard: more ahead on north korea. how the rise and rhetoric is leading to an increased in bunker buying here in the united states. plus, closer to north korea, guam, the u.s. territory. we'll take a look at why that island is so important as north korea reports it's looking at attack plans. first, police say a man drove a beamer through some soldiers and then sped off. the possible terror attack investigation near paris coming up. at panera, a salad is so much more than one thing.
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in france. police say soldiers were changing shifts when a suspect in a vehicle sped up and drove into the soldiers. doctors expect all of the soldiers to survive. police say the suspect took off and they tracked him down. they arrested him and said he was injured in the take-down. investigators say the suspect deliberately targeted soldiers and the attack was carefully timed. counter terrorism authorities are investigating. the late nest a series of attacks on officers in france this year. in june, an algerian man attacked a cop. news continues with shep after this. loans. loans. but if that's not enough, we offer our price match guarantee too. and if that's not enough... we should move. our home team will help you every step of the way. still not enough? it's smaller than i'd like. we'll help you finance your dream home. it's perfect. oh, was this built on an ancient burial ground?
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missile strike just in case. >> believe it or not, many americans are wondering if kim jong-un is sufficiently unhinged to try to launch a nuke at americans. some it seems are hedging their bets and buying bomb shelters. for gary lynch, business is booming. >> in the past two weeks, sales have been up 90%. >> the texas-based company has started doing big business selling underground shelters to japan. >> there's a great threat from north korea looming in japan. >> now with kim jong-un's reach getting longer, lynch is getting more and more calls from the west coast. >> sales on the west coast have been lower than those in the midwest, the southeast and the northwest. now north korea has the ability to attack and hit with an icbm all of the west coast, our sales
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are going up there. >> lynch says he understands why people are a bit nervous and he says he's selling more than a obama shelter. >> the days of being in a dark enclosed dungeon are over. you can live in comfort now. >> remember now, rex tillerson says all of this is way out of order. he made it perfectly clear today when he said americans should sleep easy at night. he says this tension is more rhetorical than anything else. we reported north korea has put guam in its rhetorical cross hairs. and announcing they're looking at plans for an attack on the island. again, north korea's rhetoric should be familiar after decades of hearing it. guam is some 2,100 miles from north korea. its home to 6,000 u.s. troops and others. greg palkot has more. greg? >> shep, it is a pretty remote island, but a pretty logical choice when you look at it for kim jong-un's attention.
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again, guam is a westernmost territory of the united states with military bases on it. there's an air force, a navy base and soon to be a marine base. 6,000 service members on an island the size of chicago. even though it's u.s. soil, we won it back from the spanish. if we want to stage an attack on north korea, we can do it without asking anyone's permission. we try to do it from south korea and japan, we would have to ask that permission. b-1 bombers have been flown from guam twice with japanese and south korean jet fighters in escort to do fly-byes of south korea just south of the dmz from the north. and those have driven pyongyang crazy. no wonder that kim jong-un has been targeted or rhetorically
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targeting guam a couple times in the past. but never with so much description, never with so much detail. it's a prime u.s. target. officially guam is trying to re-assure its people the governor of that island standing in front of the u.s. flag in a video message today trying to give that re-assurance saying that the u.s. had its back. there are in fact thaad anti-defense missive systems installed on the island as well. secretary of state tillerson made a stop in fact on guam on his way back from diplomatic measures dealing with north korea in asia. he said he had no plans to reroute it, that it was safe. according to reports, shep, some on the island are feeling they could be caught in the crossfire in the not too distant future of an escalating crisis. back to you. >> shepard: thanks, greg. a reminder, what is escalating is the rhetoric.
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josh lederman from the a.p. just returned from a trip to asia with secretary of state rex tillerson. good to see you, josh. >> great to be here. >> shepard: he's spending time to take everybody off of this high fear level. the secretary was clear this morning. >> shepard: he was very clear. he said americans should sleep easy at night. they shouldn't be concerned that there's no imminent threat. but of course, just a few hours after he offered those re-assurances, we heard again from president trump. this time on twitter. first retweeting a video that had been posted from "fox and friends" from his warning the night before and trump talking about the strength of the nuclear arsenal and how it's unparalleled. divergent messages from the secretary of state and the president and it's up to the north koreans to determine who they want to listen to, which is a disconcerting thought. >> shepard: a lot of this is for domestic consumption as well. a very serious investigation
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underway. a lot of chaos in that building behind you. now the drums of war beat from the president rhetorically. it feels like a classic distraction tactic. >> we don't know what motivated the president to go this route. we know from white house officials today, shep, that this was not something that the president had been reading a prewritten statement that had been cleared by other officials. it was something the white house says that other people in the national security council new the general sentiment of what he was going to express but the president essentially delivered this off the top of his head. we know that it wasn't something that secretary tillerson knew extensively what the president was going to say in advance. so it's left to officials to reconcile the messages. we heard from the state department a few minutes ago saying all of the u.s. government is on the same page. >> shepard: is the president -- will the president say anything about this?
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has he gone any further? has he mentioned more? >> we haven't heard more from the president on this today. what we have heard from is the pentagon. secretary mattis released a statement that doesn't go as far as president trump with the belacose language but saying that they need to refrain from this language if they want to exist. so the president trying to get additional support for what he's saying from the other elements of the government, trying to cast this as something that is well-orchestrated across the national security apparatus and not something that he was ad libbing on the spot. >> shepard: before we go, behind the white house over your shoulder, there's -- we see this shot all the time. what is that? >> shep, it appears to be a very large chicken display? a what? seriously? >> i'm looking at the same
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images that you are over my shoulder. that's right. i don't have a whole lot of information other than to tell you that the chicken is not something that is normally present at that location behind the white house. >> shepard: but that's not in the secure area. that is a place where people might demonstrate or something? >> it appears from this vantage point that that would be somewhere in the elipse area, the whole area obviously is under a lot of security, surveillance. possibly not an area where that would be kept physically out of the way. >> shepard: well, chicken on the lawn. josh lederman, nice to speak with you. thanks very much. looks like there's people on top of the white house. that's part of the ongoing construction. remember, they're redoing the cooling and heating systems. if we remove this spot chatter, they'll see people all over the top of the white house. workers up there. remember, they had to replace the heating and cooling.
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part of the reason why the president is taking his vacation at this time. lawmakers weigh-in on the president's warning to north korea with fire and fury a strong message, an empty threat. you heard former defense secretary cohen saying it was a bluff. we'll heard from members on capitol hill next. honey? can we do this tomorrow? (grunts of effort) can we do this tomorrow? if you have heart failure symptoms, your risk of hospitalization could increase, making tomorrow uncertain. but entresto is a medicine that was proven, in the largest heart failure study ever, to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. if you've had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, don't take entresto. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure,
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>> shepard: the president receiving support and criticism from lawmakers in his own party after he threatened north korea with fire and fury. the senate armed services committee chair john mccain told a radio show that attacking north korea could be catastrophic for our ally south korea and that he does not think president trump is prepared to back up his threat. >> you have to be sure you can do what you say you're going to do. the great leaders i've seen, they don't threaten unless they are ready to act. i'm not sure that president trump is ready to act. >> shepard: again, there's senator lindsey graham that told
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cbs this morning that the united states is ready to act. >> president trump has drawn a red line saying he won't allow north korea to have an icbm with a nuclear weapon on top. he's not going to let that happen. he's not going to contain the threat. he's going to stop it. >> shepard: senator graham said war would with terrible. if there's going to be a war, it's in that region, not here in america. peter doocy as more. what are the democrats saying? >> nancy pelosi said his saber rattling and rhetoric erode our credibility and weaken our ability to reach a peaceful resolution to this crisis and must immediately end. across the capitol, senate minty lieder chuck schumer says we have to be deliberate but reckless strategy is not a way to keep america safe.
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dianne feinstein from california said isolated the north koreans has not stopped them from their missiles. president trump is not helping. it's not that democrats don't want to be tough, but they want the president to tone down his language, shep. >> shepard: what are we hearing from other republicans? >> if there's going to be a missile strike, republicans want the white house to ask congress for help. >> if one of the military options that the administration is looking at is a preemptive war on the korean peninsula launch by the united states, that would require the authorization of congress. >> similarly, the armed services committee chair says "american men and women are standing up to the threats every day. it's time for congress to stand up with them and provide the equipment, training and resources they need and deserve." the regular republican critic,
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susan collins, ignored the fire and fury line saying this -- >> so there is a lot of support for the president, but republicans don't want to see the president call in some kind of an air strike or something out without asking them if it's okay. shep? >> shepard: peter doocy live in washington. thanks. president trump said mitch mcconnell said there's un realistic liked to style my dog as a kid... and were pumped to open my own salon. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and she prescribed lyrica. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if
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. >> shepard: president trump hitting back after the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said that the president has excessive expectations about
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passing bills in congress. mcconnell told people back home in kentucky that the president's early timelines are one reason this congress has a reputation of not getting anything done is. >> our new president has not been in this line of work before. i think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process. so part of the reason i think people feel like we're underperforming is because too many kind of artificial deadlines. >> shepard: the president responded this afternoon tweeting senator mitch mcconnell said i had excessive expectations. i don't think so. after seven years of hearing repeal and replace? why not done? let's turn to a.b. stoddard, from real clear politics. it's really easy to know why not done. because within the republican party, there's this side and that side and there's no meeting
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in the middle. >> that's right. no one is blaming president trump for the fact that the republican congress promises for seven years and couldn't get their act together to find consensus and come up with something. it was never going to be a repeal obviously. it was going to be called repeal and replace. it was a reform of the existing law. they couldn't get it over the finish line. for that, he's been openly critical of them. it's not really appropriate or politically useful for president trump to be shaming the senate republican leader on twitter and turning his supporters against him. they have an incredible load ahead. really, really big deadlines that they're going to fight very hard over. so this idea of having an open fight when the president could have easily picked up the phone
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and said mitch, i don't appreciate you saying i was a neophyte at your rotary club. it call it a mistake. >> there's a lot of fighting going on. it looks like for instance, the "wall street journal" editorial board, all after h.r. mcmaster, a lot of the conservative radio media, what is that about? >> well, there's a real problem that even general kelly as the new chief of staff has not been able to get rid of no matter how much discipline he enforces when and if when people can walk in and out testify white house. there's feuding fashions in the west wing. steve bannon is at odds with i guess the foreign policy national security agenda of h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser. they have had disagreements. it's obvious for those that have to pay close attention that things would be leaked after meetings, if there was
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disagreement with someone in the bannon wing of the white house who disagreed with h.r. mcmaster. there was actually an embarrassing leak about him that seemed to come straight from bannon world about how h.r. mcmasters didn't know how to communicate with president trump and president trump would cut him off in the middle of the briefings. so they've taken in the last ten days trying to shame mcmaster, the president on friday did a rare thing. he actually issued an e-mailed response where he supported his national security adviser. still, as long as those factions are fighting, it will be dysfunction in the west wing. >> shepard: good to talk to you, a.b. thank you. >> thanks, shep. >> shepard: we're coming up on neil cavuto's hour. the dow is off today. the last few weeks we've been setting records all the time. nothing goes up every moment.
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today we're off. we were off as much as 70. now around 50 points. the best in business is coming up. "your world" with neil cavuto after a commercial break. i'm shepard smith in new york. liz is filling in for neil after this. this is joanne.
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>> let's consider what is alarming. what is alarming two icbm tests in less than a month, two nuclear tests that took place last year. as a matter of fact, when there's an earthquake in china, i get e-mails and calls from you asking if there's another nuclear test. let me finish. it's a big deal what is going on. it's a concern to the world, not just the united states. those are alarming actions. they're provocative actions on the part of north korea. >> harris: >> liz: the state department firing back at critics of the president's fire and fury remarks saying when it comes to