>> dana: going to save it for tomorrow? >> greg: going to save it. it's too long. >> jesse: set your dvr is to never miss an episode of "the five." "special report" is next. >> bret: this is a fox news alert. i am bret baier in washington. we will have an exclusive interview with tom price on the controversy regarding his use of private flights, what the secretary did and said about that today. how president trump is reacting to the news. that's coming up shortly. first we begin tonight with the crisis in puerto rico. the administration trying to counter a narrative that it has been slow to act as the mounting nightmares at the port of san juan continue. homeland security advisor tom bossert will join us in a moment and explain the federal response and where it is. leading off the coverage, chief white house correspondent john roberts with a report on how president rob is taking steps to get more help to

puerto rico faster by waving restrictions and an obscure law about foreign cargo ships. >> it was a charge the accusation of being slow to react to hurricane. with those charges being leveled at the trump administration, the white house came out swinging. the white house pushback against criticism that its response to hurricane maria has been, as one democratic member of congress put it, ineffective and inexcusably slow. tom bossert saying some news reports are lagging behind. >> a lot of the reporting is understandably not wrong but dated. >> officials insist response efforts are moving as quickly as possible. 10,000 federal workers including 7200 u.s. military are on the ground there. three-star general jeffrey buchanan has been sent to oversee the response in the hospital ship uss comfort is teaming for puerto rico.

>> distribution from the island has been a challenge. we had to remove debris, clear land slides. we have done things like air drops. >> at the request of puerto rico's governor, president trump granted a waiver of the jones maritime act to allow foreign flagged vessels to vary supplies from u.s. ports to puerto rico. the homeland security visor insist there's been no lack of capacity to get relief supplies in. >> i wasn't recommending to the president that he waive the jones act until i got the governor's request. once the governor called, i think we should listen and the president agreed to. >> the white house was defending the new tax reform plan in the face of criticism its huge tax break for the wealthiest americans. chief economic advisor gary cohn insisting it's aimed at middle income americans. >> a typical family earning

$100,000 with two children that has been a standard detector who uses the standard deductions, continues to use the standard deduction, they can expect a tax cut of about $1,000. >> critics say the illumination of the state local tax deduction could mean middle income families in high tax states like new york, connecticut, california could end up paying more tax. >> you could find me someone in the country that their taxes may not go down. we have all different types of structures in the tax code. i guarantee you you could find someone, maybe one person. >> the white house could not say measures like eliminating the alternative minimum tax would not have benefited president trump who in 2005 paid $31 million in a.m. t. >> american taxpayers care about what they take home. they care about what they have to spend.

that's what they care about. that's what i care about. single-family getting back a $1,000 tax cut might care if a billionaire is getting back tens of millions of dollars but gary cohn says when you factor in the state and local tax deduction, the amt becomes irrelevant. >> bret: we are getting ready to hear from the health and human services sector tom price as he's apologized for the private flights. what's the reaction of the white house? >> we know it was in the works this afternoon when sarah huckabee sanders was asked about it. the health and human services secretary, former congressman tom price, will be paying back out of his own pocket some $51,000 of more than $400,000 in private charter use. over the last few months. when sarah huckabee sanders was asked about whether or not tom

price should be worried about his job, she said we want to wait and see what the outcome of the investigations by not only the investigator inspector general but also an internal hhs investigation before they make a determination. the president seemed very displeased with what his health and human services secretary was engaged in with his travel. it was telling. other people have fallen out with the president and survived. maybe tom price will as well. >> bret: we will see about that. john roberts live on the north lawn. thanks. as president trump moves to get more help to puerto rico faster, many on the island continue to struggle just to survive following hurricane maria. this is despite the fact that there are supplies on the island already. garrett tenney is at the port of san juan. >> a symbol of how fragile the immediate recovery effort will

be in puerto rico begins here at san juan's main board. 10,000 of these shipping containers filled with desperately needed supplies are sitting on the docks. it's the first problem and what has become a cascading series of supply-chain nightmares. less than 20% of available truck drivers are in place to deliver the goods. >> what we really need is hands-on to distribute the cargo for those people in need. the impact has been devastating. it's a matter of working on better logistics on how we can start moving things around the island. >> governor tells us the driver situation is improving but that more bottlenecks to wait. impassable roads, a lack of diesel fuel and little to no communication across the island. one obstacle piled on the other that's hindering the humanitarian outreach. >> we recognize because we are in island things have taken a little bit more time but we are not much more. >> adding to the shortages of food, fuel, power is a lack of ready cash to buy those

necessities. most atms are empty. lines at banks are long. without electricity, card transactions are nonexistent. some businesses are offering credit and operating the old-fashioned way. >> translator: ucs collecting bills by hand with cash that we have and selling everything we have for a discount. to those who do not have, we give it to them. it's a matter of helping our community. >> further hampering the effort is a lack of reliable information needed to prioritiz prioritize. the communication grid is all but inoperable outside san juan, making contact practically impossible with hard-hit rural communities. >> translator: lots of people are looking for places, trying to get a signal. word keeps spreading that such and such a place has a signal. we ask, what company has a signal? >> the government is working getting more drivers on the road

but they are in a bit of a race against the clock because some of these containers contain perishable goods like food and medicine that will be lost if they are not delivered soon. >> bret: garrett tenney live in the port of san juan. thank you. let's get the latest on the puerto rico effort. joining me tonight from the white house, homeland security advisor tom bossert. tom, thanks for being here. you said today that some of the reports are lagging. has the dynamic changed from what we are hearing? >> thanks for having me. that dynamic never changes. in terms of reporting but the dynamic on the ground always does change. i freaked earlier this morning the number of hospitals that were open. i updated it again this afternoon. as an example, i will brief now. 51 of the 69 hospitals on the island are open. 41 of 48 dialysis centers are open. this is one of the key critical factors.

it's something that has changed throughout the day. old reporting are old footage from earlier tends to give a bad impression. it wasn't wrong at the time it was recorded. it's dated. that's the challenge for all of us. >> bret: it is not just democrats who are criticizing a little bit of the effort. here is senator rubio talking about what he is hearing and seeing. >> basically there is no communication, no power, no fuel. no truckers. you've got container sitting at the port and they can't move it. as the aid comes in, they are having trouble distributing it. they don't have a way to distributed. they don't know where to distribute it and some of it needs to be refrigerated. >> in other words, it's not entirely accurate. understandably he is pointing out the problem and the challenge of getting commodities into an island, but he is suggesting there is no fuel, no water. anytime you use terms like no,

never, you are wrong. there is quite a bit of fuel and food and water. the challenge is getting it to the middle of the island, the mountainous areas. it's a logjam we are breaking and making progress. we are getting in front of the curve. >> bret: you waited until, and we heard in john's piece, the governor of puerto rico made the request to change the jones act. you didn't think it was necessary. >> that's correct. it wasn't a necessity at the time the president waved it. the idea of waving it was to make sure it didn't become an impediment. up until the time of the waiver, we had american ships providing americans applies to american citizens, and we were outstripping in terms of capacity the needs of the island. what we ran into was a land-based distribution logjam. the waiver issue wasn't the primary impediment. it was misunderstood by some.

that remains the case. >> bret: you are deploying the u.s. military and the military is involved. three-star general, as we heard, becoming part of the operation. not leading it overall? >> we had a four-star admiral in charge based off -- the four-star navy component commander was leading the effor effort. with norad backing it. we just saw a transition, perhaps misunderstood, a three-star brigadier out of fort sam houston. the three-star provides the command structure and the support forward operation. his one star is on the ground and the one star general has the command structure, support, authority command all ground forces to break the logjams. >> bret: last thing, i know

what you are saying and i hear what you're saying about what's being deployed there and what's happening. geraldo rivera is on the ground and talking to people like this lady about what she is seeing and feeling. >> it's completely going crazy. people are fighting for water. they are fighting for diapers, anything they can find. we don't have water, running water. we don't have electricity. we need help. we needed a lot of help and we are not honestly -- there hasn't been any help coming for us yet. >> bret: that her experience. what do tell those people tonight? obviously they will be seeing these images and hearing from geraldo and others on the ground. >> is a terrible condition for a lot of people in need of a lot of support right now. i tell them the federal government is on the way with increasing over the material and people to help distribute the materials. i tell them governor rossello is in command of the island. fortunately we don't have any reports of unrest or civil

disturbance in a way that is a loss of control. that's a testament to the law enforcement on the island but also to the national guard troops deployed before and during and after the storm. what i would tell her is her heart and soul comes through in the plea for help. the president hears it and the president is directing all the resources of the united states of america to help in puerto rico. >> bret: we appreciate your time. another fox exclusive, health and human services secretary tom price joins me in studio to explain his private flights. president trump's reaction and what he is doing about it today. that's next. when you have a cold stuff happens. shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. hi. so i just got off the phone with our allstate agent,

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>> bret: this is a fox news alert. there is considerable talk about what will happen to health and human services secretary tom price. president trump has that he's not happy with the reports about price's travel on private aircraft. secretary price joins us in studio with his side of the story. i wanted to give you a chance to say what hhs is doing about puerto rico before return to the aircraft situation. >> our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody who are victims of harvey, irma, maria. puerto rico, particularly challenges. hhs has people on the ground. we are doing everything we can. the challenge is, as you heard from tom bossert, getting supplies to the people and people to the supplies or facilities. >> bret: today you said you think you still have the confidence of president trump. why do you think that? >> i continue to work, we work

together on the issue of the hurricanes, global health security, working on -- >> bret: has he talked to you about this? >> he has an ses he has said publicly, he wasn't happy. he expressed that to mean very clearly. >> bret: how so? >> just that way. i won't divulge any personal conversations i've had with the president but he wasn't happy. >> bret: he put a statement out. you say you apologize and you are going to write a check. >> bret: i think the important point, these trips were official business and within budget and approved by the normal processes ever gathered administration has gone through. prior to the trip, not after. we have heard concerns. i have heard the criticisms. in order to make certain people appreciate my respect for the taxpayer is as strong as it can be and always has been in my 40 year career, we think it's important to do a number of

things. one is to say there will be no private air charters at hhs going forward. second is to cooperate fully. with the inspector general. there is a review going on and i called for an internal review within the department itself and finally to pay for my portion of those trips. this is unprecedented, never been done, to our understanding, before by secretary in spite of the fact that previous administrations about secretaries that flew an awful lot. still unsure. you say in a statement the taxpayers won't pay a dime for my seat on those planes. you are writing a check, we understand, $51,887. the total cost is estimated at more than 400,000 for the 26 flights since may. is that okay? >> as i said, there is an ongoing review being done by the inspector general. isaac it's important to wait for that.

-- i think it's important to wait for that. all the trips have been approved, approved by the legal department and the administration department within hhs. deemed to be appropriate official travel. and we need to let the inspector general act. >> bret: what were you thinking at those moments? some of these fights clearly were the places that had commercial air possibilities. one flight to philadelphia, you drive 45 minutes to dulles, get on a private flight to fly to philadelphia for $25,000. you take amtrak, you could be there in an hour and half for a hundred bucks. >> that particular trip, we had a meeting on the hurricanes i needed to be at and we had a meeting in the afternoon at the white house. these trips were approved through the normal process. it was deemed appropriate and that was the necessary way to make my other obligations within the department. >> bret: clearly the

white house and the president have concerns. take a listen to some reaction. >> i'm not happy. i will tell you i'm not happy. >> i said yesterday he's not thrilled, not happy with the actions. we are looking at the issue. >> does secretary price expect to keep his job in this administration? >> i think the president addressed this yesterday. we're going through the process and conduct a full review and see what happens. >> tom price as he had zero confidence. is that true, mr. president? >> bret: he didn't answer that that. are you worried? >> i work at the pleasure of the president. the president is a remarkable leader. i'm incredibly privileged to serve in his cabinet and work on behalf of the american people. i look forward to gaining, regaining the trust the american people, some of them may have

lost. and not only regain the trust of the american people about the administration. >> bret: mr. secretary, as a georgia congressman, you touted the fiscal responsibility. you really went after others for wasting money. you lead the charge against nancy pelosi's, what was called her air force back then and private flights for congressional lawmakers. i guess some people are asking, why didn't you see the problem in the 26 private flights? >> these were ten trips with 26 different legs. we have a very ambitious agenda and we were trying our doggone best to accomplish the issue mn and the president's agenda. clearly we weren't sensitive to the taxpayer which is why i've

taken the actions i've taken. >> bret: you know the press obviously circles this. i know the investigation is ongoing. there is a buzzfeed story out that you wanted to reopen the department's executive dining room. is that true? >> no. what we did was we reopen a dining room for the political and career folks in the department on a different floor so they have more options to eat lunch and chat and work during lunch. >> bret: when you say you are concerned about the taxpayer dollars, how do you convince people that's true after they look at what's happened? >> clearly the demonstration by paying for my portions of these trips, i think it's a huge demonstration. it's unique. it's never been done before, unprecedented, as i'm told. second is a suspension of all private air charter travel. by me or anybody in the

department at this point. cooperating fully with the review being done by the inspector general. during the kinds of things, the actions and activities that will demonstrate we can hopefully regain that trust. and do our work on the behalf of the american people. incredible issues at health and human services. our charge is broad with the cdc, cms, nih, remarkable institutions over which we have authority and leadership response abilities. the men and women at hhs, 80,000 employees literally around the world are doing phenomenal work. they are doing everything to make sure the american people are safe and we can improve their health. >> bret: asked congress gets ready to deal with the budget, you're looking at an 18% cut to hhs.

>> the president has clearly laid out priorities to reinvigorate the nation's defense. there are real challenges there, it the president's budget made appropriate reductions in spending. areas that will allow us to fulfill the mission of improving the health and safety and well-being of the american people to do so in a way that allows the president's priorities to be kept. >> bret: mr. secretary, we appreciate you coming on and answering these questions. >> thanks. >> bret: up next the triumphant return to congress of house majority whip steve scalise. here's what tamara fox affiliates are covering tonight. fox 5 in las vegas. o.j. simpson could be released from prison with ms. monday. simpson was granted parole in july. he has served nine years from fr armed robbery. he was acquitted for the murder

of his wife and -- hugh hefner helped to usher in the so-called revolution. his empire included "playboy" magazine and a string of clubs around the world. two his life was chronicled on a reality tv show called "the girls next door. hugh hefner was 91. live look from fox 13. big story there, city officials admit there have been setbacks in clearing debris from hurricane irma. starting tomorrow, they will have two contractors working the streets along with city employees. they say some trucks owned by one vendor ended up going to south florida where help with cleanup was needed. that's tonight's live look outside the beltway from "special report." we'll be right back. up, skelet! you're finished! curse you, he-man, you interfering imbecile! give us one good reason

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>> bret: the commerce department says the economy grew at 3.1% in the second quarter. that's up a tenth of a percentage point from the previous estimate. it's the fastest pace of growth since 2015. experts predict the momentum will slow in the third quarter due to the impact of hurricanes harvey, irma, and maria. stocks up. dow gained 40.5. s&p 500 up 3. nasdaq moved up a fraction. equifax making it easier for consumers to access their credit records. in the wake of the massive breach of information on one or 43 million americans. equifax says it will introduce the free service by the end of january. it starts with god. that's how house majority whip steve scalise explains his recovery from a serious gunshot wound sistine last summer.

scalise returned to work to a standing ovation and much admiration. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel shows us. >> an outpouring of emotion as majority whip steve scalise return to the house floor. 15 weeks after nearly dying after being shot. >> i am a living example that miracles really do happen. first place i want to go to think true angels along the way starts with the united states capitol police. >> he talked about the morning when he was hit by gunfire in his left hip at a congressional baseball practice. >> when i was laying on the ball field, the first thing i did once i was down and couldn't move anymore as i started to pray. i will tell you it gave me an unbelievable sense of calm knowing at that point it was in god's hands. in >> in addition to thanking doctors, scalise thanked his

colleague congressman brad winthrop, a retired army ranger who he credited with keeping him from bleeding to death. >> god put brad on the field with me because the tourniquet saved my life so i can make it to the hospital. >> scalise underwent multiple surgeries and had to fight off serious infections. >> my femur was shattered. the hip and pelvis had serious damage where the bullet went through and did damage to areas that had to be shored up with steel plates. they did a phenomenal job rebuilding humpty dumpty. >> thank god our prayers are answered. >> the house democratic leader paid tribute saying all our team scalise. >> an attack on you is an attack on all. we came through this magnificently because of your strength. >> scalise surprised everyone by deciding to walk rather than riding his scooter.

scalise told reporters his return shows if you fight and persevere you can overcome anything. many lawmakers told me they will never forget this day. >> bret: it was emotional. mike emanuel, thanks. they welcome has not been nearly so supportive for senator bob menendez. the new jersey democrat faces a gauntlet of aggressive media each day as he goes to his corruption bribery trial. brian ems reports from newark. >> if convicted, will you resign? >> day 13 of the trial of bob menendez included testimony from a former government employee who spoke about what she believes was an unusual request by menendez's office on request of his friend and donor. both men facing up to 15 years

in prison. the prosecution allows menendez used political influence to help the doctors business interests. one of the business interests was a security company. the prosecution allows senator menendez trying to get the dominican republic to use security equipment and reject a u.s. donation in the process. former u.s. customs and border patrol liaison officer testified about an odd email request from a staffer in menendez's office in 2013 asking the agency to consider holding a shipment of equipment. she testified the request was unusual. "if we had deemed it necessary to provide the equipment, i find it odd a senator would ask us to stop." the prosecution showed the jury a receipt for my golf club in

west palm beach, florida, showing menendez and melgen had played golf the day before menendez's office sent the email to cvp intervening bath of melgen's company. email exchanges claim to show that the same day melgen's family promise to donate $60,000 to the menendez campaign the senator asked for a meeting with william brownfield, assistant secretary of the international narcotics and law enforcement affairs department. brownfield works with the dominican republic government to keep ports secure. menendez went to newark international airport where he boarded a commercial flight to puerto rico to assess the situation after hurricane maria. >> bret: thank you. former national security agency worker accused of leaking a classified report about russian cyber attacks used to complain about fox news on the office television. according to transcripts from reality winner's interview with the fbi. she told agents she stuck the

document out of a secure nsa facility by putting it in her panty hose. tomorrow a judge will consider whether to release winner on bond. the court split for a four on the case last year. justice neil gorsuch has been confirmed. the case has the potential to financially cripple labor unions that represent government workers. house and senate have passed a bill to avoid a partial shutdown of federal aviation programs. the bill includes tax relief for hurricane victims and an extension of three health care programs. the deadline for action was saturday. trump administration on defense over puerto rico. we will get reaction from the panel when we come back. my dell small business advisor

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♪ >> the president has shown again you don't give a damn about poor people or people of color. denying services needed by the people of puerto rico. i hate to say it that way but there's no other way to say it. >> the administration and the president, every time we've spoken, they have delivered. this morning, late last night i asked for a waiver on the jones act. this morning the president accepted the waiver. >> bret: two very different takes on the federal response to puerto rico. this as the president tweeted: "the electric power grid in puerto rico is totally shot. large numbers of generators are now on island. food and water on site." take a look at our poll, foxhole on the president's handling.

approval, disapproval. on the top of the chart, hurricanes. 60% approve. disapprove 31%. the other issues. health care on the bottom, upside down 35-58. let's bring the panel. fox news senior judicial analyst judge andrew napolitano. any walter, byron york. what about the response in puerto rico? you heard the interview with tom bossert and what they are doing in the top thing is getting the material through the island. >> i've been watching this all day and even on some of the other networks. i am fixated with geraldo rivera who is painting a bleak picture. i think the general who was in charge of the rescue efforts in katrina was unduly harsh and personal with respect to the president. there is the perception, and it's based upon on the ground

reporting by geraldo and others that the president is more interested in other things, certainly was more interested in irma and harvey then he has been in the catastrophe that's become puerto rico. can he recover from this? yes, he can. he's had a very bad week because of domestic political events but sticking to the puerto rican story, the impressionist too little, too late. >> i think it started it with e first tweets. putting a lot of blame on puerto rico. the talk about this is a country come up puerto rico itself, not a separate country, territory that's struggling. bankruptcy, problems with infrastructure. it was only after that that the discussion turned to here is the help we are giving. there are some logistical

challenges to giving aid to an island. no doubt about that. that challenge. this is what president bush found in this president is finding. when people are reporting from the scene and you with your own eyes as a viewer can see what it looks like to be there, you instantly ask why the government isn't doing a better job. >> bret: first of all, i think twitter loses nuance and i think he was trying to perhaps say that the big problems in puerto rico are multiplied exponentially because of the situation they had prior going in. understood the implication there. what they are doing now, isn't getting enough to balance out with the feeling is on the ground as far as the public sentiment about puerto rico? >> clearly not. people needing help and not getting it. they are not getting what they need.

i do think the white house fully appreciated the incredible logistical nightmare that this is. and obviously there have been efforts. we see these containers piling up that haven't been distributed. they got there. i think clearly it took a few days to realize this was something beyond the capabilities of a normal response. this is most important because of the substance. people need help. politically the number you showed was quite impressive. 60% of the people approve of trump's handling of the earlier hurricanes. 11% more than any other topic for him. >> to that point, that was the earlier hurricanes. curious to see what those numbers are a week from now when we ask that question. >> bret: let's turn to taxes. here's the vice president and gary cohn and some democrats talking about tax reform. >> before he gets a christmas of this year, we are going to pass

the largest tax cut in american history, and we are going to get america going again. >> we think we can pay for the entire tax cut through growth over the cycle. >> if you use that kind of math at goldman sachs the way he's using it here in washington, he would've been kicked out of that firm a long time ago. >> wealthy americans are not getting a tax cut. >> please. let's have some honesty. >> lying is a growth industry. i really like chuck but when it comes to tax reform, our bill, he is going through a phase. it's called brain dead. >> bret: all right. thoughts about taxes. as we start to get the details, they will be worked out on capitol hill. >> this is one of the major events that donald trump has been waiting for any push during the campaign. they did not see it come as we know, tries they did with respect to the affordable care

act. he promised a huge tax cut, one that would cause a sort of reshaping of the tax landscape. i was hoping for the postcard size tax return. apparently that will be the case for many americans but not for all of us. do i like everything in there? no. do i like the concept, the principal of a huge tax cut so as to regenerate the economy? absolutely. do i think it will pass? yes. i think even my small government bodies in congress, particularly in the house who do not want to be the deficit increase will vote for this tax. >> bret: the freedom caucus has already kind of sign-on. speak of the problem is the whole discussion is hypothetical. if you listen to gary cohn, he say we are going to cut middle-class tax cuts. >> bret: state and local

deductions. >> if you take the brackets down, where are the lines between the brackets? child tax credit, how much is it going to be? is going to have to come up with more to satisfy conservative republicans who want to make up the gap and wanted to be family friendly as. the problem with the discussion is everything is on the level of hypothetical. >> bret: i want to save it for the second panel but amy, that's the question. we could see a lot of changes in this thing from the original rollout. the death tax could not be totally eliminated and perhaps who knows. 1% payroll tax cut, something could be put in there that hits the middle class more than it does now. stick with this is the other challenge which is what republicans had going into the health care debate. mixed messages coming from congress and the president. nobody really sold it. the discussion was process oriented and focused on getting members to vote for it. nobody sold it to the public. this is going to take an effort

making the case this is going to help regular people. when it comes to taxes, full know it instantly. you're going to get your tax bill and know whether you got a cut or an increase. you can't just spin your way out of it. thing able to make the case, democrats being against this are going to be unified in their message. they can be very disciplined on that. can republicans be disciplined selling it question rex the 188% want small business and middle-class to get tax cuts. next up, the panel on my interview with health and human services secretary tom price and the fallout over the private flights. designed to quickly wick away moisture to help maintain your skin's natural balance. for a free sample, call 1-877-get-tena. looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest

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♪ >> there will be no private air charter is at hhs going forward.

second is to cooperate fully with the inspector general. there is a review going on that i called for an internal review within department itself. and then finally, to pay for my portion of those chips trips. >> bret: has made it clear that he is not happy with those developments. he'll look into it and i'll leave it between the president and the secretary to work it ou out. >> bret: i interviewed hhs secretary tom price about that in may, at the cost of over $400,000, estimated. he is paying about $52,000 back and saying he is going to change the policies. we are back to the panels. >> i don't think this is a big deal and i wish it weren't. there are so many people in the government to have their own jets. the head of the fbi has his. the head of the cia has his. every four-star general has one. the secretary of defense, the attorney general, secretary of state. do we want him waiting in a tsa

line at dollars dulles? i'm the small government guy, but i want government to squeeze as much out of its way as it can. i wish he had the plane. i wish he could fly wherever he had to to get his job done. >> bret: amy? >> that was part of the difficulty. i think that it's really why this became such a big issue, he was traveling to places where he was doing something for 20 minutes and giving may be an hour's speech, having dinner with his son. this was not, i needed to get somewhere so i could spend the entire day digging into really important issues that have to deal with health and human services or health care or any other emergency. so that's a big challenge. the second question is going to be, are we going to see changes across the board? the secretary came on and he said, there are going to be number charter flights ever at hhs.

our other agencies going to follow suit? is that going to be something we will see going forward? speech it we should point out that betsy devos flies private but she pays for it and others have as well. the issue, byron, is the symbolism and how it looks. congressman price from georgia, a big deficit and debt hawk, that's why he wrote in an op-ed america is on the path to bankruptcy. stop the reckless spending. and so it's not as much the dollars. it's more the image, right? >> part of it is the image, but part is the dollars because we've got to see if this will actually work. we know the flights were more than $400,000, and he has repaired $52,000. and after your interview, ask him, how did you calculate that? he said, well, we took the total cost of each flight divided by the number of people on the

plane, and i paid one part of that. now, that's way more than paying for the equivalent of an airline seat, but it is not anywhere near the total cost of this. the question is, does price make all of these changes, does he rate to be $52,000 check, and he is still gone in the end? >> bret: of a lot of people writing in, did you do this level of scrutiny on other cabinet members in the obama administration? some of that had not come to the forefront. looking back, could we do a review? yes. >> is it a favorable offense? going on a vacation? >> bret: let me ask you, does he keep his job? >> the president was furious. i have seen him angry in person, and he was about as angry as i've seen them yesterday. >> bret: so you say no? >> i say no. i say, sadly, no. >> bret: amy? >> i have no idea, but he has been angry at a lot of people and some have kept their jobs. >> he does not keep his job.

that was a policy difference with sessions, over the decision to recuse himself. this is something far, far different. it is about personal spending. >> bret: two nos and a "yes." we'll see. when we come back, what could possibly get three former presidents in one place at the same time? ♪ liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

and her new mobile wedding business.tte at first, getting paid was tough... until she got quickbooks. now she sends invoices, sees when they've been viewed and-ta-dah-paid twice as fast for free. visit quickbooks-dot-com. >> bret: finally, tonight, the president's cup teed up in new jersey, the liberty golf course, every two years, like the ryder cup, this is the u.s., not versus europe, but versus the rest of the world. australia, asia. former presidents bill clinton, george bush, and barack obama were on hand today to get some great matchups had to head. the pros playing, and all three of these presidents are golf enthusiasts. u.s. presidents and heads of state often serve as honorary chairman, but this is the first time three former presidents have attended. president trump is a expected at

the president's cup sunday for the final round. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that is it for "special report." martha is next. and don't forget, rush limbaugh is with sean hannity tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern. >> martha: good evening, everybody, and martha maccallum, and tonight, our story begins with some numbers. 3.1%. that is the new number for second-quarter gdp, april through june. it represents the fastest pace of economic growth in over two years. >> the economy growing at a 3.1% annualized rate, the first time we have seen that in years. >> people didn't think we could get to 3.1 gdp for a while. that means $3 trillion. it more than pays for a tax cut. >> martha: you get the argument. during the election, polls show that people want to jobs, a growing economy, and then trump said he would make -- then havingan