he dropped the engagement ring into a river after getting down on the knee. the couple has the go fund me page to replace it so far they have raised 260 bucks. todd: keep going go fund me. you have a lot more. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> bye. >> more than half of the state of florida is still in the dark in an unprecedented power outage. >> today is a scene of absolute devastation, destruction, and broken hearts. >> we stayed and i will never do it again. >> the big focus for the white house is on tax reform. the president having six senators over for dinner. >> we need as big and as a dramatic tax deduction and tax reform as we possibly can get. >> five years after benghazi two security contractors are speaking out. >> was the state department contract officer trying to silence you? >> oh, absolutely. >> sports center anchor jemele hill tweeted out donald trump is a white supremacist. >> i don't know how people who voted for donald trump can feel comfortable at all watching espn.

>> hillary clinton's book "what happened" came out today. i heard it's almost 500 pages long. unfortunately the only person with enough time to read it is hillary clinton. [laughter] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ taking my time on my ride. brian: yeah, taking your time. that's exactly what hillary clinton did. she showed up an hour late for her own book signing. steve: in the heat. brian: how can you be late for your first book signing. steve: do you know what she said when people got there what happened? brian: that's true. i didn't know it was 500

pages. steve: it's very long. ainsley: she has a lot to say. a lot of people to blame. steve: thank you very much for joining us on this very busy wednesday. of course, on this wednesday, we are looking back at the destruction over the last week. brian: right. and it starts now with florida. hurricane irma leaving 12 people dead. millions without power. and nearly 100,000 people in shelters across florida. steve: tomorrow president trump will get a firsthand look at the devastation in the state of florida. ainsley: ellison barber is here with more on his trip and plan to sell tax deduction. >> president trump is set to travel to florida tomorrow since the very first time since hurricane irma made landfall. >> fema administrator long is traveling to the affected areas today and the president will be making a trip to florida on thursday. the president's action during these times demonstrate why is he a true leader who can bring the country together and get things done for the american

people. >> president trump traveled to texas twice after hurricane harvey wreaked havoc on the lone star state. the first lady joined him there. she is set to go with him to florida as well. along with the vice president and the second lady. before he leaves, president trump is reportedly planning to meet with moderate members of the house and discuss, among other things, tax reform, an issue high on the president's to do list. the white house says they would be happy to make a deal with republican and democrats. budget director mick mulvaney says he hopes the final plan is not revenue neutral. >> we need as big and as a dramatic tax reduction and tax reform as we possibly can get. i think if we look at that through this static model and say well, we are going to have to raise money over here to make up for taxes if we're going over there, we will never get the size of the tax deductions and tax reforms that we need. >> last night president trump met with six senators to talk about tax reform. the three republicans all members of the senate finance committee. the three democrats all

moderates, up for re-election in states then candidate trump easily won. sources told fox news democratic senator heidi heitkamp, despite attending a rally with the president last week, is not yet supporting a specific tax plan. but in a statement, the north dakota senator said she was encouraged by last night's meeting adding, quote: i hope these bipartisan discussions continue. sources tell fox news president trump is planning to travel to 13 states over the next seven weeks to try and sell his tax reform plan to the american public. steve, ainsley, brian? steve: all right. ellison barber live in our nation's capital. thank you very much. so the president is planning to sell the tax plan in 13 states in seven weeks. the reason that is so substantial is because he was given the opportunity to do that with the affordable care act and doing something about obamacare. but he was specifically told by mitch mcconnell, mr. president, i've got this handled. don't do it. well now the president with the benefit of hindsight

realize that's really can't count on the republicans in the senate to could it. so now he is going to have to pull out his best monty hall impersonation to try let's make a deal with democrats as well in the u.s. senate. brian: yeah. and last night was so important because you have these vulnerable democrats outside john tester. you have got to get to 60. more importantly, if you don't want to be surprised, and you are a democrat. if you are the president and want to hear what democrats want, and what some of the hurdles might be, for example, i imagine during that conversation joe manchin or heidi heitkamp says here's the obstacle to me voting with you. and then the president would take note. of course, his finance guys are there. and today he is going to be meeting with the problem solvers in the house. the problem solvers in the house are people that are relatively open to doing this crazy thing called trying to get something done. ainsley: republicans in congress need to get on board. they didn't do obamacare. they didn't fix that problem. if they don't fix tax reform they are in big trouble when it comes to their

re-elections. in other news we have a fox news exclusive. you know five years ago was that terrible attack in benghazi when ambassador chris stevens and three other individuals were killed. well, there are two men, they are contractors. they did fight for our country. one was a green beret and one was an army intelligence agent. they started their own company. they are private contractors. they say they can't stay silent anymore about what happened over there in benghazi. steve: that's exactly right. shortly after it happened, they were called back to washington and essentially they were told by a state department contracting officer by the name of jan sisentakener. these is still there one of the reasons people making decisions about security are still making security decisions about all the other embassies. she told them essentially don't talk to the media and get on the same page as the u.s. department of state. she also said in her -- which at that point it's all about a video.

in the very beginning. she also said that she did not believe that the embassy security personnel should have guns. and she said point blank to the fellow she was talking to and you are about to hear from him. she said i don't think embassy personnel should have guns, the security personnel and you should support that, too. and the guy, she was waiting for a yes or a no and he just gave her a blank look. brian: all right. let's listen. >> people who made the poor choices that actually, i would say, were more responsible for the benghazi attacks than anyone else, they are still in the same positions, making security choices for our embassies overseas now. given that the politics has been taken out of the benghazi situation, now that there is no longer a candidate or anything related to it, we have an opportunity here to fix the problems that made it happen. brian: one of the main problems is they hired blue mountain group, tiny organization with almost no security experience out of wales. leaving all naked to attack some paid the price with their lives. ainsley: that's right. these two guys, these

contractors, they bid for that they wanted to bring in their 8,000 employees. they have a huge company or did at the time. they wanted to go in there and protect chris stevens, the ambassador and his staff there. they were rejected because their bid was higher than this company out of whales walen you have al qaeda swarming them to protect them without guns. they were standing at the doors of the ambassador' office and where he lived, his residence. they didn't have guns to fight off the swarming islamic radical groups that were everywhere according to ambassador chris stevens. he wrote a cable to the state department begging for more security. he said their compound could not withstand a coordinated attack. 12 days later, 12 days before he was killed, the state department admitted, according to these individuals, these two guys, called them up and said, we made a mistake, we should have hired you. we want you to go back in and protect ambassador chris stevens. he is asking for more help. they said they didn't have

enough time. steve: that was actually two weeks before it happened. they realized in benghazi they had a problem. so they called up this security group and said, hey, can you come back? we know you lost the bid by 4%. can you come back? because we feel we are not safe. they said well, you know, it's gtion to take more than a week or two. maybe we could be there in a month. chris stevens was dead just 12 days later. and then after that, they were pressured by hillary clinton's state department to keep quiet and the preservation of the company is the reason they did that. ainsley: that was then. how can we move forward as a country to make sure this doesn't happen again? these guys are saying if something does not change it's going to happen again. that lady still works at the state department they said. they said that the contracting rules are way outdated. they said in 1990 congress passed a law where the contract always goes to the lowest bidder it doesn't matter if they are going to have second rate security. doesn't matter. if they are cheaper, we are going with them. they said the companies are cutting corners and racing

to get the lowest contract. brian: all right. let's move on and talk about espn. you know the network which was for the longest time inpenn penetrable and basically the standard when it comes to sports coverage has found itself in a lot of trouble lately. in fact they have a series of layoffs and they have programming changes. now we find out that even last year alone their revenue is down 23%. i think, perhaps, if you look at this last incident, you could see what is playing in to the ratings decline. more and more this sports network seems to have a political agenda. and if you see this jemele hill who is co-hosting i believe the 5:00 p.m. show and what her comments were, you see that the danger that they are losing. whether you are the biggest president trump fan or not, you are looking at a situation where 50% of the country are told to go jump in a lake. when you say, this jemele hill donald trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself with other white supremacists you basically told half the country that we don't really want you as a viewer.

steve: she was involved, the way i read it in the "the washington post" this morning, is she was involved in kind of a twitter back and forth. it started with kid rock. and then it evolved into the conversation about the president of the united states. so, given the fact that in the past, espn has actually fired people over their social media comments curt schilling, of course, was -- criticized the north carolina bathroom bill. he got fired. it was interesting to see what espn decided to do. would they fire her? well, apparently they talked to her and then put this statement out. ainsley: the comments on twitter from jemele hill regarding the president do not represent the position of espn. we have addressed this jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate. brian: do you guys have any comments on that? we want to hear from it jason whitlock is co-host of speak for yourself on fox sports 1. he will be here in two hours. ainsley: do you think she should stay within her lane? stick to sports? i hear she is really good.

i don't know much about her because i don't really watch espn. but she has 5:00 show. i hear she is really good and her critics are saying stick to sports. we watch espn for sports not for politics. brian: i don't know a single person that watches that show that likes it. ainsley: really? brian: yeah. ainsley: here are headlines for you. big legal win for travel restrictions. back thousands of refugees from entering the u.s. the move comes after five justices backed up justice kennedy's decision to block a lower court's ruling that the policy is unconstitutional. justices will hear full arguments on travel restrictions next month. two more americans joining the list of diplomats affected by unexplained attacks in cuba. the state department raising the total number of victims to 21. that number could actually get bigger. some diplomats are suffering from mild traumatic brain injuries. suffering from hearing loss and headaches. believed to be caused by a sonic device near their houses in cuba. the u.s. expelled two cuban

cintds over the incident. but it's unclear who is exactly behind those attacks. and those are your headlines. steve: a lot of people think russia has probably got a hand in it. if you believe that. all right. coming up on this wednesday, former president barack obama calling the decision to end the dreamer program cruel. but our next guest says no one has been more cruel to immigration reform than former president obama himself. brian: hillary clinton's super fans waited for 12 hours to meet their idol at her book signing. what happened when they got to the front of the line? you'll find out ♪ are you all ready for this ♪ ♪

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brian brian glad you are up. 17 minutes after the hour. former president obama lashed out against president trump. remember that last week on his decision to end daca writing on facebook about four paragraph story. but here's an excerpt. the sha shadow of deportation has been cast over some of our best and writest young people once again. to target these outcome people is wrong, it is self-defeating, and it is cruel. our next guest says nobody has done to poison the politics of immigration reform than president obama himself. former speech writer for president george w. bush,

"wall street journal" columnist bill mcgern. how is laying the groundwork. >> in 2007 the stars were in alignment for comprehensive immigration reform. and it was a group of the senate, mostly mccain and john kyle working with ted kennedy to come up with a compromise bill that was supported by president bush. there was a group of senators, i don't know about 8 that were drafting legislation and making real compromises, right? and it included the dream act in that bill. senator obama came by, suggested a few small changes. they accommodated him, thinking he was a yea vote. and then he backed these poison pill amendments. they are about five of them. but the key one was introduced by senator dorgan on guest workers. these are amendments designed to kilt deal. make people walk out because it's taking something else

away mostly on guest workers. barack obama voted for those amendments. so. brian: john mccain at the time says he thinks he poisoned the well because he didn't want bush and more importantly mccain to be part of immigration reform. >> that's been his pattern. i think that he has preferred to have the issue to bash republicans on rather than actually have reforms. brian: also, bill, on top of that. this thing was ready to go. he had a four page facebook post after president trump made his decision. >> on daca, too. a lot of people criticize us for it, but no one has been stronger for immigration than the "wall street journal." the "wall street journal" was very critical of president obama's moves on daca using executive authority. that he himself admitted he didn't have. brian: i think the "wall street journal," am i right, supported the gang of 8. >> yeah. but they have criticized. we've criticized barack obama throughout his administration for these orders. they are not even executive

orders, different memos because they poison the well why making people think it's an unfair process. donald trump has returned it to congress where it belongs. they should work out a deal with compromises. brian: it might be happening comey naive. indianapolis pelosi did have a meeting yesterday with paul ryan and they are talking about some type of border security in exchange for these daca things. >> there is a lot of deals you can imagine. the point is that's where the authority is in congress. that's where the reform should come from. brian: show the people's track record before they take things at facebook value. all right? bill mcgun wrote about it and talked about it thanks for talking about it. >> thanks, brian. brian: remember the teacher who kicked students out of her class for wearing pro-trump t-shirts? we have update on that ahead. social media saying denying climate change is killing us and should be considered a crime. the climate alarmists are the ones who should be charged says our next guest

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freedom of information act request demanding explanation planned sweeps on 24 ice offices.

steve? steve: it was a benefit meant for hurricane victims but it didn't take long for hold thollywood to make it political. >> anyone who believes that there is no such thing as global warming must be blind or unintelligent. steve: that's stevie wonder. and they're not the only one. these headlines doubling down their climate change attacks. the nation saying climate change denialism is literally killing us. and the other from the outline climate change denial should be a crime. well, that's new. here to react climate researcher and author of an inconvenience deception which looks at al gore's book and is actually outselling al gore. dr. roy spencer joins us from nashville today. doctor, good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. steve: it shouldn't be surprise going have you two big powerful hurricanes in a row there are going to be some people who have said we have never had that before so it must be climate change. >> we knew this was going to

happen i mean in terms of the hype. because, as you know, we have gone almost 12 years without a major hurricane hitting the united states. so we have got a nation of teenagers who virtually none of them ever remember hearing in the news of a major hurricane hitting the united states. when i say major i mean a category 3 or stronger. steve: so are you a climate denier? because it sounds like while those other people on the political left are saying, obviously, we have got to penalize climate deniers. you are saying human activity, as we have chatted before, may not be necessarily related to this. >> well, yes. frequently i am called a climate denier. i don't know why. i believe that some of the warmth that we are experiencing now is due to the carbon dioxide putting into atmosphere from burning fossil fuels. when these big events major hurricane, whether it's harvey or whether it's irma, you have to look back in history to see the context. and i believe i have a

graphic that i sent you that you might be able to show. steve: yes. >> which shows all the major hurricanes which have hit florida since 1900. basically each dot is a hurricane. steve: right. >> what you see is that over time, and this includes irma. this goes all the way through irma, that just happened. as did you go through time, there has been no increase in the number of major land falling hurricanes in florida and there has been no increase in their intensity. the big one was 1935 with the labor day storm. and then weaker that be that was andrew in '92. weaker than that was charlie in 2004. and then irma was, you know, more of middle of the road kind of major hurricane if you can think of such a thing. steve: sure. you say that global warming alarmists are the ones who should be prosecuted. what are you talking about? >> yeah. well, i wouldn't bring that up if it weren't for the fact that we're attacked as being the ones that should

be prosecuted or killed. some people are pretty radical about this. it's because the people that are pushing for new energy policy want to have us using energy which is much more expensive than fossil fuels. some day i hope we can have renewable. renewable energy sources which are competitive with fossil fuels. we are not there yet. and since everything that mankind does depends on energy, forcing expensive energy on people, which is what these people want, is going to create more poverty. if there is one thing that we know kills people in the world routinely it's poverty. steve: sure. doctor, just to get -- to make it clear, you do not see a connection between what is going on in our atmosphere or man is not creating global warming. that's what you told me during the commercial. are you sure about that? >> well, i think -- okay, i think that mankind probably is contributing to the

warmth. we are currently seeing. we are about as warm as we were 1,000 years ago. no one knows why it was warmer back during the mid evil warm period. we are now warm again. part of that is natural, no doubt, in my mind, part of it is human caused. but it's missing the point. that this warming that we're see something relatively benign. it's only half of what climate models predict. the extra co 2 is on average good for life on earth. so, to me, this is much ado about nothing. that there isn't really anything we can do about it any way. the 2015 paris climate treaty, you know, everyone came to an agreement, which will have no measurable impact on global temperatures by the end of this century. steve: so, roy, you have a point of view that is different than a lot of people thawz that you see on tv. how much hate mail do you get from people who say you are a climate denier?

>> it's not too bad. i get about one a he can would. i've been flying pretty much below the radar i think until this latest ebook. so i'm getting a lot of action now. steve: all right. roy spencer joining us today giving his point of view from nashville. sir, thank you very much. >> thank you, steve. steve: all right. what do you think about that? email us at friends@foxnews.com. after hurricane irma many people returned to their homes only to find there is nothing left. >> would stayed and i will never do it again. it was the most frightening experience and i should have listened to the authorities. steve: we are live on the ground in one the most devastated communities coming up. these police officers just wanted to help clean up after irma but they sparked a social media storm instead. wait until you hear the comments. but, first, happy birthday to ben savage, the boy meets world star is 37.

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