conversation on twitter at howard kurtz, i bet we will have a lot about the interview with giuliani, mueller, biden, we will be back here at 11:00 eastern wit heather: monday april 8th and this is "fox & friends first". happening right now at 4:00 a.m. on the east coast. fox news alert for you, dhs secretary kirstjen nielsen is out. resignation shocking washington as illegal immigrants continue to pour into our country. who is the president's pick to replace her and what does it mean to border crisis? devin nunes firing warning shot at democrats. >> we are prepared to make those 8 referrals this week, two on conspiracy, the one on leaks. heather: democrats could steal

highlight. the star shines bright, country music awards, big night, who took home the top prices, "fox & friends first" starts right now. ♪ ♪ heather: good morning to you, you're watching "fox & friends first" on this monday morning. hope that you had a great weekend, i'm heather childers, start with country music after last night's award show, much more on that throughout the show, we begin now kirstjen nielsen will stay at the department of homeland security for at least a few dais after

abruptly resigning, the white house signaling tougher stance on the border crisis. griff jenkins in washington as new information continues to unfold. >> surprised all of us, announcing resignation later following up with a tweet last night, i have agree today stay on as secretary through wednesday april 10th to assist with orderly transition and ensure that are not impacted and she is gone, nielsen led through most challenging and turbulent times as surge at border increasingly grown with resignation sharing frustration, i have the next secretary will have support of congress in, of course, fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to secure borders and continue to discord in our own nation discourse. former ice director or fox news contributor had this to say.

>> but the president obviously is frustrated on what's going on in the southern border. >> democrats who have been critical of the secretary particularly of family separation fiasco reacting to the news. speaker pelosi issuing this statement saying this is deeply alarming that the trump administration official that put children in cages reportedly resigning because she's not extreme enough for the white house, quote, disaster from the start. now, current customs and border protection commissioner, heather will take over after many decades in work there having been since last administration dating back to president obama in 2014, well respected border official within members of congress and we shall see what the next steps are, heather.

heather: we will see to the response from democrats. thank you very much, griff. some other stories we are following, president democrat alicia, former ceo officer who know what is to protect americans, breaking from party lines and admitting that the wall could help curve the crisis if built in certain places. >> i'm a former cia officer, i spent my career trying to prevent homeland attacks. the sheer numbers that are coming over right now, you to call a spade a spade, it's extremely difficult to deal with and we have to make sure that the border forces have what they need in order to protect people in humanitarian way, you to make sure they have bed space that is they need, practical, logistical situation. i don't think a wall is immoral, i think that we do this every day in the military, honest to god assessment of what you need and do it. i think that's gone on and in

some areas you just don't need a physical wall, even the president you don't need wall from sea to shining sea. heather: echoing the president no amount of border agents or no stretch of wall would be effective without congressional action. illegal immigrant charged with murdering a police officer, accused of shooting officer during traffic stop on the day after christmas. the case has been suspended pending mental health evaluation, the alleged killer faces death penalty if he's confident to stand trial. originally from méxico and has known gang ties. heartbreaking father, still hopeful timothy is alive after vanishing 8 years ago. >> i know he is, he's probably in the middle of nowhere being

home schooled, some place, you can't give up hope, as soon as you give up hope, declare him dead? i'm not going to do that. heather: timothy last seen at water park with his mother in 2011, she killed herself and left note saying that her son was safe but would never be found and last week the convicted felon brian lied to police saying he was timothy, he's due in federal court tomorrow, unbelievable. well, the american woman kidnapped on safari, did you hear about this? seen for the first time since she and tour guy abducted in uganda, reportedly half a million dollars ransom, officials say that they are both unharmed, president trump tweeting, please to report that the american tourist and tour guide that were in ewe uganda we released, god bless them and their family.

criminal charges could be possible for people behind several leaks surrounding the russia investigation, aisha with the latest on information devin nunes is sending this week. >> huge, heather, here is the scope of this, nunes tells fox news there are 8 criminal referrals but just one of those referrals could involve 2 dozen people. so nunes said 5 referrals are straight up naming people accused of lying to congress or misleading congress, the other three involve conspiracy, attempts to lie to the fisa court to get surveillance warrants, manipulating intelligence and a global leak as he calls it, basically high-sensitive classified information given to a couple of reporters in the last 2 and a half years, nunes didn't name any names but he says he has a pretty good idea of who could be behind all of the leaks.

>> there's always anonymous sources and they always say something to the effect of current and former senior official. we think we have a pretty good idea of who some of the sources are behind the leaks. >> okay, so it's expected that ag barr will get referral this is week after he's grilled over mueller report, that happens today, democrats like nadler still out there insisting that there's evidence of collusion despite mueller's finding, this is what schiff told cnn about calls to step down. >> there's a different standard, republicans seem to think that as long as you can't prove it's a crime then all is fair, love and war, i don't feel that way and i don't think most americans feel that way. >> democrats also going after the president's tax returns but acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney tells fox news, never going to happen.

heather. heather: the fight continues, though, thank you so much, aisha, appreciate it. well 2020 hopeful labeled netanyahu as racist. >> this is somebody who in previous election, someone who has joined forces with far-right groups that are inherently rake nis -- racist in their speech. heather: he does not believe netanyahu represent the true will of the israeli people, netanyahu seeking fifth term in tomorrow's election, has not responded to o'rourke's comments. i don't think he will. awards lighting las vegas, going to familiar face.

>> and the winner is keith urban heather: keith urban, no stranger to the title, entertainer of the year last year and jason aldean, we played a little for you, big recognition winning artist of the decade. as for the ladies, casey taking home best-female artist and album of the year and this is actress wowing the crowd for debut performance surrounded by country stars like carrie underwood. listen. the song is in movie breakthrough which i can't wait to see, looks like a good one. 10 minutes after the top of the hour, first it was all about collusion, now democrats say attorney general barr is trying to cover up the results of the

mueller probe. >> the attorneying said there's no obstruction of justice, mueller did not say that. heather: why our next guest says democrats will not be satisfied no matter what they give them. state of emergency blocked in new york town, blocked with legal action expected today. but first here thomas performing look what god gave her at the academy of country music awards.

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right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again! >> attorney general said there's no obstruction of justice.

mueller did not say that. he's a bias defender of the administration and he's entitled to be defending the administration but not entitled to withhold the evidence from congress. heather: attorney general bill barr taking accusations of concealing critical information from the public and tomorrow he heads to hill to be grilled by democrats. here to weigh in criminal defense attorney david bruno, thank you so much for joining us, appreciate it. you hear what nadler had to say but you and i were just discussing this, you say legally barr could not release full report without redactions. >> yeah, at the very least grand jury information. there were 2800 coming, i would think of the 2800, all that information is going to be in

the report and has to be redacted under the rules of evidence and there was a decision on friday, circuit court of appeals which is binding on william barr and doj which did not find any exceptions and exception to congress is just not there. there's not an exception for the house judiciary committee to get the grand jury information. heather: everyone is saying release the report, no one is saying don't release the report. >> sure. heather: listen to what giuliani had to say over the weekend, one of the president's lawyers. >> i would like for them to get all of the information. everything but i can't control that and i can't change the law. has told everybody in the world. i'm comfortable with everybody being released. heather: interesting to point out he can't change the law. >> sure, the report will be released. and you know what, ag barr doesn't have to do this. under the notification law all

he had to do was give summary and in the statute itself, the attorney general may determine released reports in public interest, may, it's not required, he is taking the next step, he said it will be -- heather: he said it would be mid-april when he would do it. >> probably next week. heather: i also want to point out because we heard nadler in the beginning, in the summary he said mueller did not determine that trump conspired and did not exonerate trump on obstruction of justice, barr, himself, though, has concluded that mueller's inquiry had found sufficient evidence to warrant criminal obstruction charges against president trump. >> two pieces there, the collusion conspiracy. on obstruction, left the question open but attorney general barr is the attorney

general. he's the one that makes the decisions. he would be the one, he and rosenstein came to the conclusion. heather: important to point out that this was with rod rosenstein. >> exactly, he's been overseeing the whole mueller investigation. he's the one that started the mueller investigation. he's the one that was there and made the decision with ag barr. heather: even after full report comes out do you think democrats like nadler and adam schiff are going to drop it? >> no, i don't think so. first of all, there has to be redactions, so there's always going to be an argument, well, the public didn't see it all but what is going to be next, who knows, they are never going to be satisfied. heather: thank you so much for joining us, appreciate it. we will have you back after it's released for sure. the time now 18 minutes after the top of the hour, reva mcintyre standing up for woman after monologue.

>> do you know it snowed in las vegas just a few weeks ago? yeah, it was so cold it froze women out of entertainer of the year. heather: warmed up there and it wasn't the music, stealing the show with american flag jacket in hand, that's awesome. carley shimkus has the top trends from last night's ceremony, but first, miranda lambert always good.

heather: welcome back, academy of country music award's host

reba mcintyre. >> did you know it was so cold that it froze us out of woman entertainer of the year. [laughter] heather: carley shimkus with fox news headlines 24/7, siriusxm 115 is here with more on country music's biggest night. she was on fire. carley: she was, let's take a moment to know how good she looked. i thought she looked beautiful. the most controversial comment she made last night. she said she wasn't going to be talking politics but did take a jab for not nominating singers that keith urban won. heather: again. carley: that's right, some folks on social media were talking about this and noted her comment including twitter user name brian, he said, taking absolutely nothing away from the

great entertainer that keith urban is but when no women are nominated takes away from winning the award, my entertainer of the year choice without looking at nominees is casey, yet not even a nom nation. alaska on twitter, once again there are no female artists in the entertainer of the year category as acm awards, why am i surprised every year and ben says, i don't really care what y'all think, keith urban deserve it is entertainer of the year award, it was long overdue for him. if you want to talk about female singer who lad big one last night it was casey, she won female vocalist of the year. heather: that's good, we love reba. carley: yeah. heather: speaking of people deserve award for outfit alone, the american flag outfit.

>> wouldn't be award show if we didn't talk fashion. social media buzzing where the american flag representing the red, white and blue. facebook user says, you could only get away with wearing that at a country award show. heather: i don't think that's true. carley: i don't either, i could see people at fox news rocking that. heather: i love that. there's a company that makes that type of thing. carley: really? heather:ly send you the link. miranda lambert talking about romance in the red carpet, debut with new husband. carley: that's right, first time she's been in public red carpet review with husband, nypd police officer, a lot of folks on social media saying job well

done, even says that he's a police officer too, wow, gorgeous, miranda lambert and gorgeous husband are so gorgeous together. she got married, they did get married in february in private ceremony. heather: look at her dress, beautiful lime bright color. carley: they look fabulous. heather:nypd officer. carley: i believe active duty. heather: time now 26 minutes after the top of the hour, democrats not wasting any time slamming secretary nielsen after she resigned. so will immigration be top nick 2020 as it was in 2016, we will debate that coming up. first carrie underwood celebrating southbound in

country music awards.

heather: welcome back, look at top stories for you this morning, starting with fox news alert, homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen will stay on till wednesday after abruptly announcing resignation, she says she wants transition to be smooth. customs and border protection commissioner kevin mclinen has been named as acting dhs secretary. case has been suspended pending mental health evaluation, mexican faces death penalty if found confident to stand trial and convicted. criminal charges for people behind several leaks surrounding the russia investigation.

this is huge, congressman devin nunes prepare to go send 8 criminal referrals to the justice department as soon as this week, the allegations involve disclosing classified information and lying to both congress and the fisa court. new action expected today as measles outbreak hits new york, weighing legal options after judge ruled against unvaccinated children from public places, todd piro with the next steps, good morning, todd. >> good morning, heather. the attorney expected back here in court after county's use declaration is misplaced. this after it was hit with 167

cases in ruling against the declaration the judge said the measles outbreak didn't rise to level of an epidemic, but leaders here disagree the county needs to be proactive which could include issuing another ban. despite increasing threat reaction to the ban is still mix. >> you have to get your kids vaccinated and you're putting all the other kids at risk by not doing it and it's not -- it's not right. >> i am not afraid to stand for people who don't want to put in their bodies, i am not afraid. i grew up in new york city, i had measles in 1978, i am not afraid. >> during the first 3 months of this year, there have been 387 measles cases in 15 states, the second highest number of confirmed cases this century,

currently 17 states allowed exemptions for those who object on personal, moral or other grounds, so far only 3 states, mississippi, west virginia and interestingly california requiring nearly everyone to get vaccinated, no exemptions allowed. rare that we have mississippi, west virginia and california on the same list. back to you. heather: so glad that we are doing more on the story, i think it deserves a lot more coverage. thank you so much, todd, appreciate it. >> no problem. heather: we will continue to follow it. violence heating up in chicago, warmest day of the year, ends with 24 people shot including 4 ra adults and 2 children at baby shower. >> children critically injured.

four adults killed, 426 people have been shot so far this year. onslaught of violence as defends position to let actor jussie smollett off the hook. >> our office over the course of last 2 and a half years have used version or deferred prosecution with great frequency. when people say to me that this appears that you are doing something for someone, look at the 59 people who have nod -- not had the same privilege. heather: 2020 democrats wasting no time slamming kirstjen nielsen moments after she resigned as secretary of homeland security, nielsen calling congress for not acting to secure the border, will illegal immigration be top issue

in 2020, here to debate it member of the virginia house of delegates mark levine and former communications director matt gorman, thank you very much for joining us, we appreciate it. >> thanks for having us. heather: matt, i will begin with you, what do you think of sudden resignation or was it really so sudden? >> well, i think it's been in works for quite a while, president trump looking to make change in the position for a while, it's time to do it, midway through the year, president trump is going to make evolutions on how to secure the border down there and time to get the successor confirmed before next year so they can implement some of the plans down there. earth health, -- heather: will any be confirmed? >> donald trump is exacerbating problem at the border, he's the

reason why there's migrant surge illegal immigration was way down on bush and obama and surging now because donald trump is feeding -- cutting aid to central america pushing the people out. heather: the question is what is the definition of seeking legal asylum and what legally you can declare to seek asylum, right, matt? >> absolutely, let's be honest about it, we are talking about 2020, this is a choice between donald trump and a democrat and president trump is at its best when he has opponent, enemy, we learned that in 2016 with hillary clinton, this is a big choice. we have somebody like beto o'rourke who democrats can claim can win texas or turn red states blue, he's calling for essentially open borders, the

wall already built to be torn down, very clear choice. i think what you're seeing democrats' rhetoric appeal to go a very small portion of far-left base, they're not thinking about what it's going to do to the broader electorate when it comes next year. heather: let's look at tweets from 2020 candidates, since you mentioned beto, kirstjen nielsen mislead the american public. you have elizabeth warren, legacy of tearing families apart will follow her for life. elect a president who will not allow her or dhs secretary who will separate families or put kids in desert tent camps. toss it over to you, mark, the person assuming control at least as acting secretary was appointed by president obama, will that be good enough?

>> well, donald trump is not going to change his policies so it really doesn't matter who he has in place, asylum seekers -- listen, back in 1930's we did turn asylum seekers away, we took jews and sent them back to germany and they sent them to gas chambers. they're escaping death already. right way to handle it is more immigration judges to basically help the honduras police fight ms13 there, that's not donald trump's policy so it really doesn't matter who he has in place. it's going to get worse. we have more people in borders. heather: matt, i will give you the last word, i will say that some of the children who died were sick on the way here so some would say the responsibility lies with the parents and those who are encouraging people to come here and cross the border illegally. >> not when they're separated. >> yes, not just asylum, i understand mark wants to talk solely about asylum, it's not

just about that, there's crisis at the border, don't take my word for it, don't take the president's word for it, take former obama dhs head jay johnson, there's crisis at the border, millions of illegal immigrants looking to come into the country, we need to have practice that secures border and let's people come legally. heather: all right, mark and matt, thank you so much for joining us this morning, we appreciate it and certainly much more to come on this. thank you. >> thanks for having us. heather: time now 20 minutes until the top of the hour, ted cruz ready to give yale law school a crash course in litigation, the senator threatening to sue over alleged blacklisting of christian organization and one law student says they are targeting conservatives as she joins us live with a message to the school. but first here is florida georgia line and jason aldean singing can't hide red in country music award.

♪ ♪

heather: welcome back to "fox & friends first", threatening lawsuit by denying students financial aid whether they work with organizations with traditional christian values. this isn't just christian organizations, this is any organization that bases decision based on religion preference, correct? >> the policy stated current i will says that a student who wishes to work for an employer that considers religion and practices, the student barred from 3 forms of financial aid

the law school officers, jewish or christian university which wishes to give preference to faculty members, that can be nonprofit organization, any of the institutions, students are now penalized if they elect to go work for them. heather: what started this? was there an initial incident? >> student demand to punish and condemn minority views on campus and this is a moment where the law school can take a stand with leadership, they can stand up and say, we are not going to kowtow to those who want to bully, this sort of discrimination against religious students is not tolerated, not now and not ever. heather: originally an event where a guest speaker was supposed to come in and speak and that's what started all of this back in february? >> right, campus event with conservative group that sparks

controversy and there was over 20 groups on campus that asked the administration to consider its funding policies and to more or less penalize students who would wish to work for organizations that have done certain religious liberty work and the students even asked the administration to consider revising its admission's policy so not even admitting students on campus to hold minority viewpoints. heather: let's bring excerpt from ted cruz's letter, chair of the committee who is ultimately investigating this. federal civil rights law prohibit discrimination based on religious faith as recipient of federal funds, yale is obligated to comply with these protections, first amendment protections free speech and the free exercise of religion, yale's new policy does neither and we have excerpt from yale statement say if an employer refuses to hire students because they are christian, black, veterans or gay, we will not fund that position, we cherish

and value all of our students, that's why we cannot consistent with nondiscrimination policy subsidize employers who discriminate among them. what's your response on what yale has to say? >> cherishing to all students is important to hone on. the loan program says it's available for students who work in all jobs in all sectors, that means that a student could work at starbucks, airline pilot, you can work at any job but now thurnd policy you can't be a religious student who wants to work at religious organization that takes religion -- heather: is that discriminatory in and of itself? >> absolutely, saying to one class of students that because you are religious and want to work in an organization that mirrors your belief, you are now at a substantial financial disadvantage compare today your peers, that you don't have access to same forms of funding that the law school provides other students, that your work

post graduation is not worthy of the same support from the law school, i think this is a statement that the law school needs to backtrack on, needs to reaffirm and put in place a clear exemption for religion-base organization. heather: jacqueline, you definitely give great arguments, you will be a great lawyer for sure. let us know what happens. >> thank you. heather: we will follow it. the time now is about maybe 15 minutes until the top of the hour and more travel trouble, courtesy of boeing, airline that's canceling up to 90 flights per day with no signs of stopping. but first here is brandly carlisle singing traveling lights at the academy of country music awards. ♪ ♪

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heather: welcome back to "fox & friends first", american airlines grounding max 737 planes, impacted 90 flights every day. tracee carrasco with sister network fox business here with why american says that it is good news for customers, good morning. >> good morning, heather, yes, june 5th is the exact date american airlines were hoping to get boeing max jets back up into the air by april 24th, however, they say they are still waiting for more information from the faa and from boeing as they work the fix the software that brought those two boeing max planes down earlier this year and then last year as well. boeing says that they do need more time. american airlines says while this is happening they are going to be canceling the flights 90

per day and that they are going to be letting affected customers know about cancellations, still no word from united and southwest that have boeing max jets in their place, what will happen to those flights. especially as we are heading into the summer, this could be major disruption. heather: they already know they are doing it, they need to let passengers know right now. tracee: yeah, they've been scrambling to find other planes to put passengers on, hopefully they'll be able to do that with enough time. heather: they were talking about cockpit, not an airplane, the tesla model 3 mysterious cockpit camera, what's going on with this? tracee: 8 cameras within the tesla model 3 but there's one on the inside that really doesn't do anything just yet. but one day it may help you earn money in tesla plans autonomous, elon musk asked on twitter, this was his response on twitter,

here is what he said, quote, it's there for when we start competing with uber, lyft and people allow their car to earn money for them as part of tesla shared autonomy in case someone messes up your car you can check the video, elon musk previously talked about long-term goal for the service which would allow people to basically rent out their teslas to be part of ride-hailing network and the camera would be accessible to them, however, if you're not interested in that at all, you can turn that feature off. heather: all right, good to know. thank you so much f tracee. let's talk about basketball, march madness will end by making history tonight. the stage is set for two teams battling to win first ever national title. 3 seed texas tech and 1 seed virginia, 9:20 eastern time. great game over the weekend. texas tech took down michigan

state saturday and virginia edge add auburn 63 to 62. free throws with less than a second on the clock, controversy for that one. we will see what happens. the time now is about 6 minutes until the top of the hour, one baseball player puts the team on his back, but not in a good way. the pro who tried taking squad in brawl

heather: first it was free college and medicare for all and now bernie sanders has a new idea. sanders is the first 2020 democratic candidate to publicly support widespread voting rights for imprisoned felons, comments have been pouring on this one, most of you feel the same way we should say. brat writes an facebook, democrats to rig vote in their favor therefore we say no and don't let them. sharon on instagram, he's ridiculous. how about we let them pay debt to society and decide about voting being restored, losing right to vote should be huge punishment for committing crime.

keep comments coming. now time for the good, the bad and the ugly, up first the good, this is really great, massachusetts nurse adopts baby girl left in hospital with novice or thes -- fostering and adopting her after she could likely never have children herself. the judge called the adoption destiny. so cute. great story. now the bad, police are looking for this crook caught on camera taking donations out of a church charity box, nypd says man helped her breakthrough doors before they got away with $400 and finally the ugly, cincinnati reds outfielder yasiel puig takes on the entire roster, center at the bench-clearing brawl after seemed to

intentionally throw batter, 1 of 5 players rejected from the game. there you go. that wraps up this hour of "fox & friends first", thank you so much for joining us on this monday, "fox & friends first" continues right now, bye bye. rob: okay, it's monday april 8th, fox news alert, kirstjen nielsen is out as head of homeland security as trump administration looks to bring more muscle to border enforcement. jillian: live in washington with what we know about replacement. white house hopeful beto o'rourke weighs in middle east politics with jab at benjamin netanyahu. rob: corey cory booker struggle. jillian: that's right, all in the 2020 round-up.