>> shepard: noon on the west coast. 3:00 at the white house where the press secretary is set to answer questions at any moment, we are led to believe. in fact, here is sarah sanders now as the news briefing for the day is beginning. sarah, to you. >> today i had the opportunity to visit the national safety counsel's opioid memorial on. it's a moving experience. president trump and the first lady encourage you all to visit the memorial before it leaves washington, d.c. on april 18th. today at the summit of americas in lima, peru, assistant to the president and advisor ivanka trump oversees private investment corporation and acting u.s. secretary of state announced two time america women's

initiative. say that fast. which will mobilize $500 million in private capital to invest in projects and empower women in latin america. this new initiative will break down barriers that limit women's full participation in the economy and reaffirms the trump administration's commitment to empowering women in latin america and around the globe. as you you a saul yesterday's confirmation hearing for secretary of state designee mike pompeo went very well. from his years in the army from his time as a key member of the house intelligence committee, to his successful tenure as cia director, secretary designee pompeo has excelled as one of the nation's key leaders in national security and foreign policy. as a result of mike pompeo's leadership, america has been safer, more secure, and more prosperous. there's absolutely no legitimate reason that secretary designee pompeo's process should not be done in a speedy and bipartisan manner. even "the washington post" editorial board hardly a cheerleader for this

administration, published an editorial yesterday with the simple, straight to the point headline: confirm mike pompeo. democrats and republicans should do exactly that by coming together and doing what is, without question, the right thing for our country. and with that i will take your questions. >> thank you, sarah. the president came out swinging today calling james comey a liar, a leaker a slime ball. is he worried about what he is saying? >> not at all. the american people see right through the blatant lies of a self-admitted leaker. this is nothing more than a poorly executed p.r. stunt by comey to desperately rehabilitate his tattered and enrich his own bank account by peddling a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section instead of dedicated servant in the department of justice. comey will forever be known as a disgraced partisan hack that broke his sacred trust with the president of the united states.

the dedicated agents of the fbi, and the american people he vowed to faithfully serve. one of the president's greatest achievements will go down as firing director james comey. >> another topic quickly if i may. the deputy attorney general was here yesterday. is the president going to fire rod rosenstein? >> i don't have any announcements at this time. the president's voiced frustrations but beyond that i don't have anything to add. john? >> sarah, the president just a short time ago issued a pardon of scooter libby the former vice president's chief of staff. there are many people who believed that scooter libby was the victim of a special counsel investigation run amuck. the recent statements that we have heard from the white house would seem to indicate that the -- you feel much the same thing about the mueller investigation. wafers the president sending some sort of signal to the mueller investigation or about the mural investigation by pardoning scooter libby? >> not at all. one thing has nothing to do with the other. every case should be reviewed on their own merit. pardoning libby was the right thing to do after the principle witness recanted

her testimony. the d.c. court of appeals panel unanimously voted to restore mr. libby's bar membership after being presented with evidence in support of the events. it appears that key prosecution witness judith miller changed the recollection of the events in question. >> in the pardoning statement today the president acknowledges he doesn't know scooter libby. what was it that convinced him that scooter libby deserved a pardon? >> the president thought it was the right thing to do. justin? >> thank you, sarah. the president began the week. >> i'm sorry, could you speak up a little? >> sure, the president began the week that he expected a decision within 24 to 48 hours. on tuesday he said a decision would probably come that night. here we are on friday. and in a statement last night he said that no final decision has been reached. i'm wondering if you could walk through why the president hasn't met his own time line there and specifically did it have anything to do with the sort of syrian troop movement

that we saw after his -- about the missile strike. >> no. we are continuing to have ongoing conversations with our partners and allies. the president spoke with president macron of france again earlier today. we are continuing to have ongoing meetings and conversations here at the white house. so when we have any further developments, we'll let you know. >> because it's friday, i'm wondering -- >> -- friday the 13th. [laughter] >> i wasn't sure exactly. >> you guys all groan like that's a bad thing. >> senator gardner in terms of what the justice department would do and what the white house would do in terms of supporting legislation on states to legalize marijuana. >> i can confirm the president did speak with senator gardner yesterday and again today. we're always consulting congress about issues including states rights, of which the president is a firm believer and a statement that the senator put out earlier today is accurate. steve? >> you said he has spoken to president macron. how big a coalition does he

have for the expected action in syria? >> again, i can't talk about anything that may or may not happen, but i can tell you that the president and a number of individuals within his administration have spoken to a number of our partners and allies at various levels across the world. >> is he satisfied now that sir i can't say was -- syria was responsible for the chemical weapons attack. >> yes. we are confident that syria had responsibility in this chemical weapons attack. we also hold russia responsible for their failure to stop chemical weapons attacks from taking place. josh? >> it was reported today that michael cohen, the president's personal attorney, helped negotiate 1.6-million-dollar settlement to a playboy playmate. and also emerged today that michael cohen is under criminal investigation by someone in new york. is the president still associated with michael cohen. does he continue michael cohen someone he holds in

confidence? >> i know that the president has worked with him as a personal attorney. beyond that i don't have anything else to add. >> these developments, would the president like to say anything about them. >> the president has been clear he has a deep concern about the direction the special counsel has taken. it started of russian collusion of which there was none. the president has spoken on this topic at length and i would refer you back those comments. >> about michael cohen's actions does the president have any response to those. >> i would refer to you michael cohen's attorney simply reports right now. i can't give anything beyond that. >> is cohen still the president's personal attorney. >> i'm not sure. i would have to check. >> paul ryan endorsed kevin mccarthy as speaker in an interview with meet the press. does the president believe mccarthy should be the next speaker. >> the president has a great relationship with kevin mccarthy. but, in terms of an announcement about who he wants to sees a the next speaker, i don't have any announcements on that front. john? >> the james comey book,

excerpts came out today. he speaks -- writes about the president in very personal terms. were you surprised by that? was the president surprised by that? >> i don't think we are surprised by the fact that james comey continues to spread false information. the guy is known to be a liar and leaker. there is not a lot about james comey that we would find to be very surprising. >> very quickly on the pardon that came out today for scooter libby, the president so far in his time in office has issued three presidential pardons, one of those was to joe arpaio. is there a commonality in terms of what the president looks for when he pardons individuals? >> again, every case should be reviewed on their own merits and that's what the president has done in each of those. >> sarah, i'm wondering if the administration has reacted with any message to moscow after officials there today said that the chemical attack in douma was fake and

staged with britain's direct involvement? >> certainly our intelligence tells us otherwise. i can't go beyond that again, we have a very high confidence that syria was responsible and once again russia's failure to stop them and their continued disaction on this front has been part of the problem. april? >?[inaudible] president for the syria delay in the time line? >> again, we are continuing to have ongoing conversations with partners and allies, assess the information, and once a decision is made, we will let you know. dave? >> thanks, sarah. justice department inspector general came out with his long awaited report this afternoon on former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe saying that he improperly leaked information about the clinton foundation investigation to a reporter and then lied to james comey

about it under oath to two fbi investigators. do you have a reaction to that and does that in your mind validate a decision to fire mccabe? >> i haven't seen the full report, but sounds like two peas in the pod with mccabe and comey. mccabe was fired disgrace misconduct and for lying beyonabout it. beyond that i don't have any comment at this point. francis can a. >> you said that james comey is a liar, that he is a leaker, that he made false representations or claims. other than what the president has tweeted this morning about lying under oath to senator grassley, what exactly has he said that's false or a lie. >> comey claimed we opening the clinton investigation when he did was based on merit. now he says it was based because of poll numbers. comey claimed the president told him to stop investigating flynn after he previously testified that no one told him to stop investigations. he also even the media has reported that officials have determined that comey leaked four memos, at least four

that we know about with classified information. i think it's very clear that comey has a credibility problem. the other thing is clear this is one of the few issues in washington that both democrats and republicans agree on. he has been criticized by the legal community for leaking sensitive information and organizations promoting good government found comey's leaking grounds for firing. multiple democrats including some of the biggest leaders in the democratic party have also attacked comey. minority leader pelosi said comey was maybe not in the right job. senator schumer said he was appalled by what comey did and did not have confidence in him any longer. senator bernie sanders secretary of defense comey acted in outjust way. running mate mccain said lowest moment in the history of the fbi. even congresswoman maxine waters said comey has no credibility. the fbi should be independent and not led by a political hack. comey's loyalty is pretty clear only to himself. if you can get this group of

people and others like mark medcos and a number of others to agree on something, i think have you to be right. joan? >> what about the dossier? did he also lie about the dossier in his conversation with president trump about that? >> the dossier is off opposition research that was funded by the clinton campaign who attacked the president. it was used illegally to justify spying on americans. and i think that's quite the problem. jim? >> sarah, about the content of the president's attacks on james comey. your tax james comey isn't that all a bit unbecoming of the presidency of this white house to go after him in such a personal way like that? >> i think it's. >> slime ball, liar and leaker? >> i think it's unbecoming for the person that's supposed to be the top law enforcement official in the united states. the person that is supposed to protect the people of this country to lie and leak classified information, certainly to falsify documents. i think that's a very big problem. and somebody who has created

this problem for himself. i didn't encourage james comey to go out and do a pr campaign. congress has asked james comey to come and testify multiple times he failed to do which he found time to sit down with george stephanopoulos for five hours. i think if anybody has created this problem it should be jim comey and he is responsible for that problem. >> if i could ask a second follow-up question. >> well because it's friday. >> it's friday. >> and you would probably get really upset if i didn't. >> not at all. probably seen this tweet it was a tweet that you posted before the election in 2016 when you are attacking fbi agents because you are under criminal investigation, you are losing. what do you make of that now? >> the rank and file fbi are some of the greatest people in this country. we repeated that time and time again. and certainly have the full support of this administration. i think we have been very clear though how we feel

about some of the leadership at the fbi, particularly james comey. >> will you go after comey -- >> -- i didn't give you two, jim. >> comey's book is the president's quote, disdain for the rule of law and his continued efforts to publicly undermine federal law enforcement officials. how would you characterize the president's attitude towards the rule of law and things that he says publicly about many of his top federal law enforcement officials? >> the president has a great deal of respect for the rule of law. but, the president does not have a lot of respect for people whose sole job is to carry out the law and they leak classified information and they lie to the american public about it. >> his own deputy attorney general, special counsel fbi, judges to make decisions that he doesn't like. >> i'm sorry, what was the question? >> there is a whole list of federal law enforcement officials that he has undermind. just not proven leaked information. >> the president -- any capacity just because he calls out things that he finds to be problematic or

concerning. i think that he should do that. if members of the fbi are leaking classified information, the president should absolutely call that to question. you guys spend hours upon hours every single day praising james comey, propping him up, giving him the biggest platform. we shouldn't be praising him. we should be putting him down. we should be taking him off of air instead of giving him minute after minute. this country has a lot of real problems. we should be talking about the economy. we should talk about syria. we should talk about the drug crisis, instead we are going to talk about james comey. you guys will cover it endlessly all day today, all day tomorrow and my guess is every day next week with very little time given to the issues that people care about, so the president has every right to call out that individual that you guys are propping up and say that there are problems and we should be concerned about this. carley? >> thank you, sarah. this morning james comey admitted that he didn't tell the president about the political. >> i'm sorry, can you speak up? >> this morning james comey

said that he didn't inform the president of the political source of the dossier. was the president surprised to hear that? did director comey ever tell him about the sourcing of the political dossier against him? >> i'm not sure about that specific conversation, but i know that it's been documented many times over now that the dossier is false opposition research funded by the clinton campaign and used to attack the president. >> question because it's friday, did the president speak to former vice president dick cheney about the scooter libby pardoning either before or after? >> i'm not aware of any conversations on that front. john? >> yeah. thank you, sarah. three republican state senators from missouri wrote the president yesterday saying that the embattled governor eric greitens should resign from office. he has serious charges of sexual abuse against him. faces impeachment and refuses to resign. they concluded that as a

former navy seal he would salutwould ifthe president aske. will he ask governor greitens to step down. >> i don't have an official responds at this time. certainly something very concerning and something we are taking very seriously and i will keep you updated as we have something. sarah? >> thank you, sarah. so, concerning the comment with [inaudible] push for bilateral free trade agreement? >> i'm not going to get ahead of the president's conversations with prime minister abe. but trade will certainly be something that is discussed as well as the ongoing conversations around north korea. >> sarah. does the president -- meeting today on syria? >> i'm sorry? >> will the president be having another nfc meeting on syria. >> there is another national security meeting later this afternoon at the deputy

level. >> ask about the process. seems like we have had three. they were all somewhat high profile or gotten the media's attention. how is the president deciding when to take action on a ohio. the scooter libby case was very old. so, and so how are you deciding when to take action on these cases and can a normal person who feels like they have been unjustly convicted, can they get their case to the white house? i mean, does the justice department process, but it seems like the president is taking special interest in certain things. >> again, the president has exercised constitutional authority and he determines when and how he is going to use that when it comes to the pardon process. evidence looks at each one individually and we make that announcement. >> sarah. >> i'm sorry.

>> thank you, sarah. the old cpw is sending in inspectors to syria. do you think this is futile exercise since you already have the evidence that we actually already have chemical weapons? >> once again we are confident in the intelligence that we have and the fact that we know that syria is responsible for these actions. take one last question. brian. >> i will do two. one on syria and one on the department of justice. on syria, the president publicly said he wants to get out of syria. has this strike changed his mind on that? and is he considering other options other than a plan to pull out u.s. forces from syria? and, if you could answer that. >> i'm sorry, what was the last part? >> is he considering other options other than a long-term strategy? >> i don't have any additional changes to policy in syria at this time. and in terms of options, all of our options are on the table and we are continuing to look at those and make an announcement soon. >> last question about the department of justice.

whadoes the president have to say to republican lawmakers who believe that firing mueller would be suicide as grassley has said or firing rorch stein. the presidents for donald trump as a lindsey graham has said? >> i'm not going to get into hypothetical situations. the president has taken no action on that part. i'm not going to get into a back and forth on a hypothetical. >> not taken action like that? >> as with a number of issues, the president talks to lot of different lawmakers on a number of topics. he is going to continue consulting with them, not just on this but on some very big issues that our country is facing and that's what his focus is actually on. thanks so much, guys. happy friday. >> shepard: happy friday to you from the fox news deck. the white house press secretary sarah sanders wrapping up her briefing finalizing by james comey's new book belongs in the bargain bin.

>> like so many of his other colleagues at the fbi, comey will be forever known as a disgraced partisan hack that broke his sacred trust with the president of the united states, the dedicated agents of the fbi, and the american people he vowed to faithfully serve. one of the president's greatest achievements will go down as firing director james comey. >> shepard: hack, liar, leaker, slime ball from the white house. in his book, james comey compares president trump to a mafia boss and is he his presidency threatens much of what is good in this nation. tweeted jockey is a leaker and liar. everyone thought he should be fired for the terrible josh he did until he was in fact fired. he leaked classified information for which he should be prosecuted. he lied to congress under oath. he is a weak and untruthful, here it is slime ball who was as time has proven, a terrible director of the fbi.

his hand lick of the crooked hillary clinton case will go down as one of the worst botched jobs of history. it was my great honor to fire james comey. see a strategy developing there. in the book, comey describes his first meeting with the president before mr. trump took office, happened at trump tower here in tiny town u.s.a. the topic moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. comey writes he was surprised that the incoming president and his team did not ask any investigation north. how do we stop the russians the ghex time. quote thee were about to lee the country attacked by foreign adds advisory sear. yet, they had no questions about what the future russian threat might be. james comey claims instead it turned into a investigated session about how to spin this news to the public. james comey talked about the meeting to abc news. >> he also said you were

struck by what they didn't ask. >> very much. no one to my recollection asked so what's coming next from the russians? how might we stop it? what's the future look like? it was all what can we say about what they did and how it affects the election that we just had? >> shepard: not new information but interesting to hear firsthand. president trump fired comey last may. and later admitted this russia thing on his mind at the time. whether members of the trump campaign colluded with russia during the 2016 presidential election and whether president trump obstructed justice. the president has repeatedly said there was no collusion. there was no obstruction. slime because, instead. go to john roberts chief correspondent lye there in the room. president trump and former fbi director has exponentially since that day in january 2017 when the

president tapped comey on the shoulder and whispered in his ear you told america what the president said about comey, here's what comey is saying about the president in his new book describing him this way this president is unethical and untethered to truth and inspirational values. kobel mocking the president's appearance saying his face appeared slightly orange with bright white half moons under his eyes where i assume he placed small tang goggles in president trump'presidentcomey'h president trump in january 2016 he informed him about the dossier in the book and in the interview with abc. comey says that the president was obsessed with the allegation in the book that he had hired hookers in a moscow hotel room and had them urinate on each other on the bed. here is what comey said. >> he says he may want me to investigate it to prove it didn't happen. and then he says that something that distracted me because he said, you know,

if there is even 1% chance my wife thinks that's true, that's terrible i remember thinking how was your wife think there is a 1% chance peeing on each other in moscow. he said i'm a flawed human human being there is a 99% chance my wife wouldn't think that's true. >> sarah huckabee sanders a short time ago apparently describing him and his more or less bitter exempt employee. listen here lie and leak classified information to fuels phi documents very big problem. somebody who has created this problem for himself. i didn't encourage james comey to go out and do a p.r. campaign. congress has asked james comey to come and testify multiple times of which he denies being able to do yet he found time to sit down with george stephanopoulos for five hours. i think if anybody has created this problem, it's james comey and he should be

the one held responsible. >> sarah huckabee sanders in a derisk action saying we will all be talking about james comey for number of days to come which i think, shep, is probably right on the money as he is beginning his book tour. a lot of people will be reading this book as well. the publisher has advanced 850,000 copies of it one thing for sure comey is going to get rich. >> shepard: he talked to george stephanopoulos about the investigation of hillary clinton's emails. >> he did. he talked about the email investigation and in particular why he in october of 2016 came out and said that he was reopening the investigation into her emails writing, quote: it's entirely possible that because i was making decisions in an environment where hillary clinton was sure to be the next -- concealing the investigation more greater weight. that quote and others brought a sharp response from robby mike --

[broken audio] >> shepard: i think we probably need to check the battery in that microphone. it's just not working anymore. we will talk to you later. we get the message "slime ball." there is the final thing. president trump pardoning vice president cheney's former chief of staff scooter libby. the year was 2007. the jury convicted of him of obstructing evidence and lying to the fbi. a judge sentenced him to 30 months behind bars. all of this was into the investigation of the leak of guilty identity of the covert cia officer valerie plame. president george w. bush commuted the sentence before libby served any time. but he refused to pardon him. there was great pressure on him to pardon him, including from dick cheney and george w. bush said i can't do it. now president trump has done it. the chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge spoke to scooter libby. she is live in d.c. hey, cat.

>> he authorized me to in his words innocence has been recognized. and he points specifically to a statement from the white house earlier today that cites an event in 2015 where a witness recanted their testimony alleging that information had been withheld from them by prosecutors and if they had had that information their testimony against scooter libby would have been different. we also heard from the former cia officer valerie plame earlier today. she spoke out before the pardon was granted. and she indicated that she was against it. and she felt it was rewarding criminal behavior, shep. >> shepard: is there any indication from your reporting that this is a signal to any of those who are in the line of fire right now from steve bannon or anyone else? >> well, john roberts, i believe, raised that question at the news conference there was something larger going on here and sarah sanders pointed back to the facts of this case. those critics of the special counsel clearly say that was an example of a special

counsel run amuck and their position is that this special counsel has also run amuck in the case, shep. >> shepard: president trump's personal lawyer, michael cohen is now officially under criminal investigation for conduct largely revoluming around his personal business. that's according to a newly released court document. cohen and the government now fighting over whether investigators can use whatever material they found in this week's fbi raid. get back to catherine on this. what's the reporting? >> okay. so, they have been in court through most of the morning in new york city. they were back in court this afternoon. there are really three key issues here. one is whether you buy the prosecution's argument that michael cohen is more of a businessman, a fixer for the president so he doesn't have the same protections that his conversations with the president are shielded under this attorney-client privilege. the second is that we had lawyers in court today from abc news and the "new york times," they're trying to make sure that the press gets complete access to the records to the full extent of the law. and then the third thing is

the records that were seized earlier this week in the raids. and what will be admissible in court. whether they're going to handle that with what's called a clean team. typically fbi agents that go through to see what might be subject to attorney-client privilege. the bottom line is most of those issues will be handled by the court in new york on monday. also within the last hour, because it's friday afternoon, we have had the remains of the long awaited inspector general's report on the fired deputy fbi director andrew mccabe. the bottom line is that it lays out the case that he lied four times. three times were under oath about how information about the clinton foundation got into a "wall street journal" article. really just a couple of weeks before the election. the newspaperre inspector generd that andrew mccabe was authorized to make that kind of information available to the media if it was in the public interest, but they judged in this case he did it for personal reasons, not for public interest reasons. and, as you know from looking at lots of these reports, there are lots of

interesting nuggets right in the footnotes. this one about page 25 was andrew mccabe's response to the section of the i.g. report. he gets sort of an advanced look before it's published. and he takes issue with the inspector general saying he doesn't know why he treats comey -- i mention it because comey is in the news. treats comey like a white knight and points out that director comey would have a vested interest in distancing himself from andrew mccabe because the inspector general was also looking at comey and his leaking of what was said to be classified information as well, shep. >> shepard: all right. catherine herridge. >> a lot of stuff. >> shepard: have a good weekend. >> see you later. >> shepard: "fox news sunday" chris wallace will be here in a minute to talk about all the news from the briefing and beyond. that's coming up on a friday afternoon. good to have you in.

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a police officer shot and killed while serving an arrest warrant on n. a home cape cod in massachusetts. investigators say his canine partner was also hurt. police say they arrested the suspect after a standoff. cops have described him as notorious and violent criminal wort with more than 100 prior criminal charges. meameantime the benghazi border firing deadly bullets as protests continue there gaza health officials say demonstrators have died. blockade by israel in egypt is pushing palestinians further into poverty. the israeli military accusing protesters of throwing explosive device and fire bomb. and the queen of edge demand's husband prince philip is out of the hospital. the 6-year-old had hip surgery last week. he missed several royal family events. the news continues with shep right after this. ♪

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it showed up oops way at a few apparently book stores at tiny town yesterday. people were out scrambling to get it we had heard that the white house and the republicans really didn't have that much of a plan for how to attack the comey book. we know better now. liar, leaker, slime ball and hack. none of that as our guide, let's turn to the "fox news sunday" host chris wallace who is live down in washington. it looks like a strategy sort of outline of a strategy is coming -- is becoming visible. >> from the white house? absolutely, which is to discredit james comey as much as possible, to say that he is just trying to sell a book. he's trying to make money. he is trying to repair his reputation, but that his reputation is irretrievably tattered. the thing that interests me about the book, i have not had an opportunity to read it. i haven't gotten a copy. but i have read exhaustive articles from the "wall street journal" -- "the washington post" and the "new york times" from folks

who have read it. is that there is not a lot new there. there are a lot of new characterizations, opinions of the president that he is untethered to the truth. comparing him to a mob boss. we have heard it all now for a couple of days. in terms of what a lot of people were expecting, in terms of bombshells, evidence, potential legal problems, not much. and, in fact, comey says that while he thinks that the president has been unethical in some of his dealings, he doesn't know that it rises to the level of the illegality. i think that will be the bottom line for the white house. they are not worried about what comey thinks of donald trump. they are worried whether he was going to create -- put another stone on his legal burden. it doesn't appear he is doing that. >> shepard: the president just tweeted as he has want to do. this one is about andrew mccabe. he says the doj just issued the mccabe report which is a total disaster. look at that, it appears like magic. good job. the doj just issued the mccabe report which is a total disaster, he lied,

lied, lied all caps. mccabe was totally controlled by comey. mccabe is comey. no collusion, all made up by the den of thieves and low lives. low lives is probably right. >> what's interesting there is in fact, according to the inspector, this is the independent inspector general for the department of justice who has investigated andrew mccabe, particularly on this question of a leak to the "wall street journal" that in fact was saying that they were investigating hillary clinton. so this wasn't a pro-clinton leak. this was indicating that they were investigating the clinton foundation. but they say that, among other people, that mccabe mislead comey, his boss, the director of the fbi, mccabe being the deputy director, so they may -- the white house may draw some equivalence between the two. but, in fact, they weren't working in concert on this,

because comey said he knew nothing about this and that mccabe, rather, had been involved in giving this information to the "wall street journal," which reportedly, even though the president said he lied three times, i think the inspector general said he lied four times. >> shepard: i'm sorry, scooter libby pardoned today. time something a thing whether we want to recognize it or not, time something a thing and you wonder what the message here is because there always is one. >> well, it is interesting. because obviously scooter libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice by another special counsel who was incidentally appointed by james comey. that was patrick fitzgerald for lying in the case of the identification of valerie plame as a cia undercover operative. even though everybody agreed it wasn't libby who leaked the information that ended up in robert novak's column. it was someone else, richard

armitage in the state department. he supposedly lied about whether he had told other people about it and by pardoning him, you know, you don't have to be a magician to draw a connection between that and the president's ill feelings about the mural investigation. >> shepard: what's you got going on this weekend? anything? >> you know, what we haven't even talked about is the potential for an act of war by the u.s. in a missile strike on syria, which could happen in the next 48 hours. >> shepard: why don't we talk about that. it could happen in the next 48 hours. is that reporting? >> no. i'm simply staying between now and our show on sunday. >> shepard: oh, yes. yes. >> it is interesting because of course the president said 24 to 48 hours back, i think last sunday or monday and we are well past that period of time. and one the questions is what's the delay? and supposedly the white house and the pentagon and some of the allies are saying we want to get our act together and we want to figure out what we do after a missile strike.

in other words, if they do another single set of missiles like they did a year ago, after another chemical attack on the northern part of the country, what impact does that have? so they have to figure out is there something they can do after that without getting embroiled in a civil war there. we think we're going to have a top national security official from the trump administration to talk about that, whether the strike has taken place or not. it certainly appears it's going to happen. then we are going to be talking to trey gowdy, who is the chair of the house oversight committee. is he deeply involved in all of this. he is investigating the fbi and the way they have handled the investigation into donald trump, the fisa warrant, andrew mccabe. we will talk to him about that. he is also investigating scott prosecut pruitt and his el issues and challenges. we ask him about the comey book and robert mueller. who knows what else is going to happen in the next 48 hours, 36 hours.

>> shepard: who knows. if you need some lefty and good time you could watch the rebels play georgia this weekend that's happening. that will happen on espn app. >> that's not in the cards. >> shepard: i will do that for you then. >> all right. good. >> shepard: chris, we will look forward to "fox news sunday" that's this sunday on "fox news sunday" which happens on local fox station. the fox station where in the great team of year there is football and they have football on that fox station, that's the same one where they stick chris there on a sunday. go over there and find him because it's good. in just a minute we are going to go to jennifer griffin who is at the pentagon with the latest reporting. you know, the pentagon has to be ready for all kinds of situations all around the world all the time. they game plan this sort of thing. i think that's what they call it and you know they're ready the question is do they get an order from the president and how much does the united states and apparently allies believe is necessary? is it a surgical strike? is it something more? you go -- you know, do you go all the way downtown on this one? we'll get to jennifer for

her excellent reporting in just a moment on fox news channel. smile dad. i take medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol. but they might not be enough to protect my heart. adding bayer aspirin can further reduce the risk of another heart attack. because my second chance matters. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

>> shepard: the white house says all options are on the table in syria and that there is another national security meeting this afternoon. president trump is not expected to attend that one. our national security correspondent jennifer griffin has the latest for us from the pentagon. jen, what do you know? >> well, shepard, officials are tight-lipped at the pentagon. there is another national security meeting as you mentioned at the white house late this afternoon. it will be at the deputy's level. all eyes will be on that meeting from the pentagon's point of view the various military options were presented to the president yesterday during a nearly two-hour national security meeting at the white house. it was a menu of options i'm told, broader and involving more targets than what was presented to the president a year ago after the last chemical weapons attack. >> don't rush decisions like this. if you rush decisions like, this you make a mistake. what we're making sure is that we have all the

information to know if we do something, what will happen, how will it happen and will it hurt anyone? >> the problem is there has been so much telegraphing that the syrians have moved their most valuable air assets to russian air bases in syria making them harder to strike, shep. >> shepard: what are you hearing from allies, if anything? >> well, the germans have said that they will sit this one out. but the french and british say they are all. in the president spoke to prime minister theresa may last night by phone. he spoke to the french president emmanuel macron again today. and macron himself called russian president vladimir putin earlier today suggesting the alliance would like to get back to a negotiated settlement to the 7-year-old civil war that has left more than 500,000 syrians dead. 8 agencies say 40,000 syrians have fled douma since the apparent chemical attack last saturday. and that, of course, was the last rebel holdout near damascus, leaving it to assad. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov

called evidence of a chemical attack a hoax. he even went so far as to suggest that special forces from a western nation, another russian official suggested british special forces had concocted the evidence in order to be the front row, he said, of a phobic campaign. britain france are united. the question the pentagon has what comes next? what is the strategy in syria? we saw in libya, shep, what happens when there is military action for what plan what comes next. >> shepard: we did, indeed. jennifer griffin at the pentagon. thank you, appreciate it. as we wait for white house meeting to happen on what to do with syria. i will speak with a former senior director at the national security council sill. michael says a strike on syria does not just risk raising troubles with russia but also could raise tensions with iran. that's coming. ♪

♪ >> shepard: so, they know we're coming because the president told them the missiles are coming. so they know that and jennifer griffin is reporting from the pentagon that the syrians have taken their best air assets, meaning helicopter fleet that they use for dropping barrel bombs and all of these -- the air force if you will and put them on russian bases. they know we are not going to bomb the russians. you figure we're not. so, what's the plan? turn to michael, former senior director national affairs now director at the washington institute works to improve the quality of washington middle east policy. good to see you. >> good to see you, shep. >> shepard: we don't know what the plan is, right? >> we don't know. i'm sure inside the pentagon at the state department they are seriously debating those options which supposedly were presented to the

president. they will be weighing the costs versus the benefits. the benefit they hope to get is deter assad. to punish him for what he has already done. >> shepard: we already did that. >> we did it once last year and apparently it's not effective. he has used them again. he has used them again because he is fighting from his point of view a war for survival and he dual, frankly, whatever he can to improve his position there on the ground. the problem though, shep, is that for that very reason, imposing a cost that will actually deter assad would probably take a pretty significant strike. and that's where those risks really start to rise. the risk either of dangling with the russians or in a risk getting involved with a conflict remember just last week president trump was saying he wanted to get out of. >> shepard: one thing we know is if chemical weapons proliferate, u.s. troops are going to come in contact with them at some point. that's the last thing we

want. we want chemical weapons to be out of bounds. to keep him from using chemical weapons in the future, is that possible militarily? >> i think it's very difficult with just air strikes. i think to take out his capacity to use chemical weapons is really difficult to do without going in on the ground and actually taking those weapons. so i think what the idea is instead is you deter him from doing it you convince him that the cost of using chemical weapons is going to exceed any possible benefit. but, again, i think he sees a pretty strong benefit to doing it. so the costs have to be pretty high. >> shepard: what's the risk of something going wrong with iran? >> well, look, you have iranian forces and iranian proxies all over syria. in fact, they far outnumber syrian troops. and so there is a risk that you do hit iranians. >> shepard: are more iranians fighting on behalf of assad than there are syrians? >> i think that's true. i think that's absolutely true. >> shepard: interesting. >> i think you worry less about the risk of escalation with iran than you do about the risk of escalation with

russia certainly. one thing we have seen with this administration so far is they don't really seem to have a whole lot of energy or appetite for countering around the region for using syria as a theater to take on iran so that doesn't seem to be something they are looking to do here. >> shepard: is it too late? i mean, should this wait for another day when they don't suspect we're on the way? >> you know, i think the president really has boxed himself in. he said it's going to happen. so, to do nothing at this stage, not only would really sort of undermine his credibility, our credibility in the region just as it did in 2013, it would really look like a replay of president obama's 2013 red line decision. i think that's probably something for this administration is knot easy to stomach. >> shepard: michael singh, thank you. enjoy the weekend. word for the day slime ball. don't be a slime ball. wall street looking good or it was by the way. it was looking good this morning. a little bit in the red.

off 114 points. hey it was 210 points like 10 minutes ago. this is better. enjoy, "your world" with neil cavuto is coming up on america's choice for news and information on cable. this is fox news channel. ♪ ♪ termites. we're on the move. hey rick, all good? oh yeah, we're good. we're good. terminix. defenders of home.

>> sounds like two peas in a pod with mccabe and comey. >> neil: two peas in a pod, you be the judge. claiming that the firing of the fbi director was justified after you misled investigators, not once, not twice, but try four times. he is disputing that report, issuing his own rebuttal, all of this just as his old boss is pushing a new book that some are saying because of this could be relegated to the fiction shelf. we are on top of it all, welcome to "your