>> i got pepperoni. i'm the most popular. >> have a wonderful weekend. it's friday! >> see you back on monday, everybody. >> this was handled in a very senior level of these departments. it wasn't handled in the ordinary way that investigations or counter intelligence activities are conducted. it was an ad hoc small group. most of these people are no longer with the f.b.i., c.i.a. or other agencies involved. >> bill: good morning, everybody. in a television exclusive with the attorney general bill barr in his first television interview since becoming the attorney general three months ago. good morning from el salvador, a split broadcast today on this friday. a special edition of "america's newsroom" as i say good morning from here and to my co-anchor and colleagues in new york sandra smith and jon scott.

>> sandra: good morning. so much news to get to with the big interview with the attorney general. his first interview since joining the trump administration and first interview since the mueller report saga unfolded. one of the big things he told you in that sfwir view is that he is still trying to wrap his head around what went down during the origins of the russia probe, bill. >> bill: exactly right about that. you get a sense as to where he is going. this is in the very early stages now. you have a federal prosecutor on the case for weeks. think back about the hearing back in april. that's where we began the discussion of this part of this interview about where he is now in trying to understand what went down in 2016. let's start there. >> i remember at the hearing about a month ago you said you're trying to get your head around everything. what are you trying to figure out? >> find out exactly what happened is the first step and trying to get our arms around

that getting all the relevant information from the various agencies and starting to talk to some of the people that have information. the thing that is interesting about this is that this was handled in a very senior level of these departments. it wasn't handled in the ordinary way that investigations or counter intelligence activities are conducted. it was sort of an ad hoc small group. most of these people are no longer with the f.b.i. or the c.i.a. or the other agencies involved. >> bill: this appears to run deep. why is it so hard to figure out? >> there are two things here. one, no one has really looked at it. i think there is a misconception out there that we know a lot about what happened. the fact of the matter is bob mueller did not look at the government's activities. he was looking at whether or not the trump campaign had conspired with the russians. he was not going back and

looking at the counter intelligence program. and we have a number of investigations underway that touch upon it. the main one being the office of inspector general that's looking at the fisa warrants. but as far as i'm aware, no one. >> bill: you came into this job and started asking questions. did you get any answers? >> i thought when i came in from the outside that all the questions that i had and many other people had that would be readily answered once i got in. but i haven't found that to be the case. >> bill: you also said back in april you thought there was spying going on in the trump campaign. when do you think that started? >> i'm not going to speculate when it started. we'll find out when it started. >> bill: it has been said it was july of 2016. does that sound right to you? >> i don't want to speculate. what i will say is i've been trying to get answers to questions and i found that a lot of the answers have been inadequate and i have also

found that some of the explanations i've gotten don't hang together. in a sense i have more questions today than i did when i first started. >> bill: some of what things don't hang together? >> some of the explanations of what occurred. >> bill: why does that matter? >> well, because i think people have to find out what the government was doing during that period. if we're worried about foreign influence for the very same reason we should be worried about whether government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale. and so i'm not saying that happened. but i'm saying that we have to look at that. >> bill: can you say when bob mueller knew there was no collusion with russia? >> no, i couldn't say that. >> bill: no date given? >> no, i couldn't say when he knew. >> bill: that is just the first part of what we wanted to share with our viewers so far today. there were two things that impressed me the most about where the story is now. that's this. we now have a roadmap for where

bill barr is going in the investigation of the counter intelligence operation. the second point is democrats are hot on his tail for countless reasons back in washington, d.c. i don't get the sense much that he cares much for that. he stands by every decision he has made as the attorney general thus far and by the way, the reason he came here was to express the level of support the u.s. government has to work with law enforcement here in el salvador and crack down on criminal gangs like m.s.13. we went to a jail yesterday to conduct this interview. 30 minutes west of the capital city of san salvador and walked through jail cells with him with members of ms-13 behind bars. a stunning sight to see. you can imagine how hot and sweaty it is in a prison cell like that in the middle of the day. he wanted to be here and make sure they know that the united states will continue to help

them crack down on these criminal elements which has been a big problem here. there is progress on that that we can share with you a bit later in the program, too. they believe over the past three years they have been able to cut down the problems by 50%. the killings, stabbings, shootings in el salvador. for these northern triangle countries, guatemala, honduras, el salvador is a big part of the overhaul of the immigration plan. back to you guys in new york. >> sandra: great stuff from down there. we look forward from seeing more from that interview in the moment. let's bring in congressman devin nunes ranking member of the house intelligence committee. you have been listening to this interview that just happened in el salvador with the attorney general. what really catches you is what he just said about how he has gotten more questions now as the attorney general than when he first started. saying that the questions he

has asked so far he feels the answers he has received have been inadequate. >> i think you're right. that's very similar to the house republican investigation. as we continue to pull back pieces of the onion more and more things started to fall out that we had to follow up on. even today we continue to be in need of more answers, right? just in the last few days we found out that there are emails that involve christopher steele that were sitting at the f.b.i., at the state department, at the department of justice that were not only not given to congress. i think every american knows out there that congress ran an investigation. anything involving christopher steele, the spy that the clinton campaign ultimately hired, should have been given to congress. now, how did we just find out about this in the last few days? i can go on and on and take up your whole show with questions that i have. i think what you're seeing is you're seeing a real attorney

general, a professional, and someone who is not going to take that poisonous garbage that the democrats and clinton campaign started and irresponsible people in congress and the media continue to put out there and poison people. >> sandra: we'll see what the investigation turns up. meanwhile you did not see the attorney general shy away from that word spying which we know was a point of contention and a point of criticism for many democrats when he testified on capitol hill. >> sandra, it's ridiculous. every american out there knows what spying is. this is all about narrative building by the left to cover up what they did and you have accomplices in the media. this is foolishness. i think that's what you are seeing the attorney general do is like look, i was a citizen out there on the street like everybody else. i'm back and i know what a spy is. he used to work at the c.i.a. for god sakes. i've never seen something so

ridiculous where the media is culpable for this nonsense. anybody in the media ought to be laughing at these politicians who are talking about how oh my god, they're calling it spying. it's a joke. it's a joke. >> sandra: there was the who as far as questions answered by bill barr in that interview in talking about him digging into exactly what happened at the origins of this russia probe. he said this was handled at very senior levels. he made that point very clear at the f.b.i., c.i.a., and other agencies that were involved. referencing an ad hoc small group of people, many of who are not even at the agencies anymore. >> let me get to the heart of this problem as i think the american people are just starting to learn what this means. when you run a counter intelligence investigation, it's very different than a criminal investigation. counter intelligence is almost always used to go after foreigners that are trying to do harm to americans or our allies.

so it's very rare to go after an american using counter intelligence. it has to be something really, really high level possibly involving someone who is leaking to our adversaries. in this case, we have yet -- bill asked the question to the attorney general about what did bob mueller know and when did he know there was no collusion. bob mueller knew the day that he walked in the door there was no evidence of the trump campaign colluding with russians. think about it. we spent tens of billions of dollars collecting emails, phone calls, all the things that people know that we have the capability to do. we have human -- >> sandra: i don't think that he has stated that publicly. i don't know what evidence you have with that. >> no, what i'm saying is that mueller -- the attorney general didn't answer that question but what i'm able to answer that

because we looked at all the work. we looked at all the intelligence. we've known for -- our report came out a year ago. not only is there zero evidence of the trump campaign colluding with russians period. >> sandra: to be clear that interview when bill asked the attorney general's answer was that he could not say at what point robert mueller made that determination. finally. >> right. that's my point. i just wanted to make sure that i answered it for the american people and that's why the attorney general is doing a good job here and not jumping to any conclusions. >> sandra: he ended that portion of the interview just there telling the american people why we should all be concerned. he made the point even democrats say we need to get to the bottom of foreign interference in these elections and he finished with the point well, we should be concerned then about our own government officials interference in our elections. final thoughts this morning. >> that's the point of the

counter intelligence investigation that american people need to understand. it is only done by very few people and very invasive and there are very few people in congress that can look over this and i think why the attorney general is trying to make that point that we need these tools. we need these counter intelligence tools but they can't be turned against american people but for sure shouldn't be involved in politics. if you want to go after a political campaign go after that campaign using criminal statutes and a grand jury and a warrant. >> sandra: a big show this morning with the big interview. appreciate your time this morning. thank you. >> meanwhile, one of attorney general barr's top priorities on his visit to el salvador the fight against ms-13. >> it is a great partnership we have with them and it's helping us in the united states because ms-13 gang members that we can get down here are not going to be coming up to the united states. >> while here in the states president trump unveils his new immigration plan. we'll tell you how that is

being received on capitol hill and new fox polling on 2020. how president trump would do against three top democrats including former v.p. joe biden. senior trump campaign advisor lara trump here to respond. next the attorney general reflects on one of the most controversial aspects of the mueller report. why the special did not make a decision on obstruction of justice. >> bill: he came back with no recommendation on that obstruction charge. that surprised you. there was a moment, my son i believe was about four, where he actually asked me "mommy what's wrong with your teeth?" if i would've known that i was gonna be 50 times happier... i would've gone into aspen dental much sooner. it was a very life changing experience... and it felt like i was me again. that's when i realized i hadn't been for three years.

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tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. how sexy are these elbows? ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. you might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. the in-laws have moved in with us. and our adult children are here. so we save by using tide. which means we use less. three generations of clothes cleaned in one wash. anybody seen my pants? #1 stain and odor fighter, #1 trusted. it's got to be tide. >> bill: you mentioned bob mueller a few moments ago. were you surprised that he came back with no recommendation on that obstruction charge, did that surprise you? >> yes.

>> bill: how come? >> the function of a prosecutor is to make a call one way or the other. >> bill: did you ask him why? >> we discussed it. >> bill: what did he say? >> i already said we met on march 5 before he delivered the report and he gave an explanation for it. it is pretty much reflected in the report. >> jon: attorney general william barr saying he was surprised the special counsel did not make a decision on obstruction of justice. let's bring in ian prior, former department of justice director of public affairs, vice president at mercury public affairs as well. when you hear the attorney general saying he was surprised that no obstruction of justice recommendation came from the mueller report, read between the lines for us. what does that say to you? >> i can tell you i agree. i was surprised when i read that part two of the mueller report it looked to me the answer to a law school exam. i've heard that term talked about a little bit. it is almost a little bit like

a recitation of what happened with comey and the hillary clinton investigation. we have this laundry list of facts and evidence laid out in a report although that wasn't quite a case with comey. he did a press conference. at the end of the day you don't have an indictment or a conclusion. ultimately that's not a prosecutor's job. i think what you saw from barr was with somebody that probably was a little bit perturbed that mueller didn't come to a conclusion on that and pass the hot potato over to the attorney general. >> jon: so the attorney general ultimately decides with the help of rod rosenstein there is no reason to charge obstruction of justice and democrats in congress seem furious. is that to be expected and appropriate? >> if you go back to the mueller report there is a piece nobody is focusing on. mueller says you have to look to corrupt intent. is there corrupt intent? if you're trying to obstruct an investigation to protect your family or business or yourself personally. but it is not corrupt intent if

what you are trying to do is allow yourself to execute the powers of the presidency to put forth your policies and if he believed as the president did that this investigation there was nothing to it and it turned out there wasn't, that's not corrupt intent. what barr did is what any prosecutor does. looked at the evidence, looked at the law, and he made a decision. now, you have democrats out there saying he shouldn't have done that. he is acting like the president's lawyer. you could say that about any prosecutor that makes a decision whether or not to charge a defendant. are they acting like a defendant's lawyer because they go through the evidence and facts and ultimately make a decision not to charge? of course not. that's their job. >> jon: there are three other investigations of what led up to the mueller report and the russia collusion investigation and so forth. one of them from the inspector general's office. bill asked the attorney general about that. listen. >> bill: when will we see the i.g. report?

>> when it's finished. >> bill: is it finished? >> no. >> jon: what are you expecting from the inspector general? >> he is somewhat limited in his jurisdiction. he can bring in current employees from the f.b.i. and department of justice and people want to volunteer to talk to him he can. he won't go into the broader intelligence community which is really where i think this thing is going and what john durham will be looking at. what does the i.c. have to do with it? what's brennan's role and comey? it is important to look at it. were laws violated? were department protocols violated? i suspect at some level is yes to one of those. even in the unlikely event that everybody did this by the book maybe it's time we look at the book and make some edits. for the past four years the f.b.i. and department of justice have been dominated by investigations into two presidential campaigns.

is the f.b.i. and department of justice being used by campaigns, by the political process to play a part in the election of our leaders. we really need to look at that and are things we can do differently to protect against that in the future. >> jon: i've heard complaints from inside the department all the russia and comey stuff for lack of a better term is preventing some of the real work, some of the effective work of the department of justice from getting out. >> absolutely. >> sandra: more to get to this morning. breaking news on some of our other big stories today. president trump sounding off on growing tensions with iran. >> are we going to war with iran? >> president trump: i hope not. >> sandra: the u.s. has accused iran to plot -- >> jon: the training mission takes a terrifying turn when a jet crashes into a warehouse.

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>> jon: f-16 fighter jet crashes into a warehouse east of los angeles. the pilot safely ejecting just before impact. the national guard plane was attempt pg to land at a nearby base when it experienced hydraulic failure. falling debris left a dozen people on the ground with minor injuries. >> sandra: president trump saying he does not want war with iran amid escalating tensions between the two countries. the u.s. has stationed warships in the arabian sea. satellite photos have shown cruise missiles on iranian vessels. >> any action this administration takes will be thoughtful, will look through and be in consultation with the

house and senate. >> it is disgraceful and despicable that we're on the verge of war and the american people are given this kind of confused and chaotic picture of what the situation is on the ground. >> we're sending the signal loud and clear. this is important. we're not just going to take action against hezbollah or your other proxies. we'll hold you, iran, responsible. >> sandra: rich edson is live at the white house for us this morning. good morning. >> good morning. president trump is in new york and returning in a few hours to washington where senior officials are stressing that despite these precautions that the pentagon and state department are taking the united states does not want a war with iran. we do have more comments out of iran. senior officials and military officials saying even our short range missiles can easily reach u.s. warships in the gulf. america cannot afford the costs of a new war and the country is in a bad situation in terms of

manpower and social conditions. the united states has deployed a carrier strike group and bombers to the persian gulf and evacuated embassy staff in iraq. members of congress want to know the specific of the intelligence driving the decisions and demanded formal briefings. the administration briefed congressional leaders yesterday and next week for the full house and senates. across the globe. spent yesterday in tokyo trying to save the iran nuclear deal and help revive his country's economy debilitated from american sanctions. iran wants help from other countries circumventing the sanctions that the united states restored when it withdrew from the iranian deal next year. if not they said they would start producing enriched aour ainiam. the u.s. has sanctioned its top exports and officials throughout the government.

the regional adversary saudi arabia said drones attacked a saudi oil pipeline. they say it originated in iran and did cause a fire and limited damage. sandra. >> sandra: rich edson at the white house. thanks. >> jon: after weeks of legal wrangling a judge is set to truly whether to appoint a special prosecutor in the jussie smollett case. >> sandra: president trump's new merit-based immigration plan met with sharp criticism from democrats. some are calling the president's proposal a 2020 campaign pitch. we'll get reaction from lara trump this morning. she joins us straight ahead. >> we've only heard titles like merit which is non-merit. it means merit in the eyes of donald trump.

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>> jon: breaking news on the

fight on the ms-13 gang. bill hemmer traveled with the attorney general to el salvador in an effort to keep gang members off u.s. soil. >> one of the big challenges we face right now in law enforcement is the humanitarian on the border. a lot of that is driven by families coming up from central america. a related to factor to that is the gang violence prevalent in the three triangle countries. ms-13, the 18th street gang. so the justice department has a very robust program down here to help the governments attack this drug problem. we're working very closely with them. >> bill: have you seeing success? >> a lot of success. the murder rate has dropped in half here in el salvador in the last three years. at in three years in the northern triangle we've been

able to charge over 7,000 members of ms-13 and the 18th street gang. it is a great partnership we have with them and it is helping us in the united states because ms-13 gang members that we can get down here are not going to be coming up to the united states. and also the intelligence we gather here, because we have a big program here to support their wiretapping and other kinds of intelligence down here, we can use that to prosecute ms-13 members in the united states. for example, last august we prosecuted six ms-13 members in new jersey using intelligence that was gathered down here. >> jon: good news from the attorney general. much more on the fight against ms-13 in the next hour when we speak with a u.s. attorney. >> jon: if adopted, our plan will transform america's immigration system. the biggest change we make is to increase the proportion of

highly skilled immigration from 12% to 57%. future immigrants will be required to learn english and to pass a civics exam. we're presenting a clear contrast. democrats are proposing open borders, lower wages and frankly lawless chaos. we are proposing an immigration plan that puts the jobs, wages and safety of american workers first. >> sandra: that was president trump unveiling a plan to overhaul our immigration system. centered on border security and merit-based system. the proposal drawing criticism from democrats. i'm joined by lara trump, senior advisor to the trump 2020 campaign. is this a real solution or is this a 2020 campaign pitch?

>> the president has been talking about fixing our broken immigration system for so long and i think the whole point of what he is saying is we want to give people coming into our country, we want to give legal immigrants the best chance possible. it is good for our country to have people who are skilled workers or have certain education that will benefit our country but for them, too. why would we want people to come here when they aren't sure if they can succeed? taxes are overtaxed when it comes to the welfare system but let's give these people the best chance possible to succeed in our own country. >> sandra: it didn't stop nancy pelosi from some very open criticism following the president's proposal yesterday. here is the speaker. >> i want to just say something about the word that they use merit. it is really a condescending word. are they saying family is without merit? are they saying most of the people that come to the united states in the history of our country are without merit because they don't have an engineering degree?

>> sandra: she called it condescending at merit and non-merit. merit in the eyes of donald trump she said. without democrats what can get done? >> i think the president's plan hopefully will be implemented after we take back the house in 2020. i would love to see the democrats get on board with this beforehand but we know they likely won't. i disagree with her assessment there. there are so many countries around the world that used a merit-based system to allow people to come into that your country. canada and australia use that system and it works very well for them. nancy is not going to like it but if not now, after the 2020 election. >> sandra: let's talk 2020. are you knee deep in all this right now. this is some of the latest fox news polling on where things stand with the current democrats that are running for president. joe biden leading by double digits with the competition in his own party. bernie sanders at 17%.

biden leading at 35% there. warren drops down to the single digits at 9%. pete buttigieg and others follow. joe biden the clear leader as it stands today. >> i don't find that surprising. he was the last person to get in the race and he has a boost from that. he was our vice president and has great name recognition with people. but you know what? out of all of these people he might be one that i think independents and more moderate democrats can get behind. a lot of people in this country are going to have a hard time getting behind someone like bernie sanders or someone who is running on a more far left platform like socialism. so maybe that speaks to the fact he might be doing something right in the eyes of democrats. >> sandra: in a head-to-head match-up here is where things stand. biden, sanders, warren all beating donald trump if the election were held today. so does trump 2020 see joe biden as the biggest threat,

bernie sanders also in that poll would beat the president and elizabeth warren as well. >> i say this all the time. none of these people like a huge threat to me. reality is the people in this country in 2016 chose donald trump who had never been in politics before who they really didn't know how he would perform to be our president and he has performed extraordinarily well and delivered on all the promises he made to the people of this country and you see it in evidence every day with our economy, the unemployment numbers. so he has real results to show here. where all these other people, even joe biden, had eight years under the obama administration to do a lot of great things for this country and we didn't really see that. so we still maintain we feel very comfortable no matter who the candidate. it looks like it could be biden or sanders. >> sandra: it is still early. really interesting question posed to those that were polled about what democrats prioritize as far as running against this

president? the biggest priority for them is can the person that they support beat donald trump. it is the clear winner in this poll. 73% put their priority importance in that issue ahead of high ethical standards, track records, new ideas. that's the most important factor. >> >> that's sad. not just beat donald trump. it speaks to the fact there are still a lot of people out there that are very upset that hillary clinton didn't win in 2016. maybe -- >> sandra: what's the message for the 2020 trump campaign now? >> our message is look at your life. is it better now and will it be better in 2020 than before it was before donald trump took office? i think a lot of people will say it is. >> jon: the attorney general william barr not mincing words about all the heat he is taking from many democrats. >> bill: nancy pelosi believes you lied under oath.

what do you think of that charge? >> i think it's a laughable charge. >> jon: what's the next move for speaker pelosi and house democrats? we'll hear from democratic congressman ro khanna next. your. i didn't know geico could helps with homeowners insurance. yep, they've been doing it for years. what are you doing? big steve? thanks, man. there he is. get to know geico and see how much you could save on homeowners and renters insurance.

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serious allergic reactions may occur. see me now. i'm still clear. how sexy are these elbows? get clear skin that can last. ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. >> sandra: the missouri house of refptives -- lawmakers set to debate legislation today after the alabama governor signed a controversial bill into law earlier this week banning nearly all abortions if her state. that bill could set up a challenge to roe versus wade. kentucky, mississippi, ohio and georgia have all approved bans on abortion once a heartbeat is detected. >> nancy pelosi believes you lied under oath. what do you think of that charge? >> i think it's a laughable charge and i think it's largely being made to try to discredit me partly because they may be concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened

during the election. but obviously you can look at the face of my testimony and see on its face there is nothing inaccurate about it. >> jon: that's attorney general william barr and fox news exclusive interview dismissing some criticism from democrats over his handling of the mueller report saying the backlash is all political after house democrats on the judiciary voted to hold barr in contempt. what happens next? let's bring in house oversight and governmental reform committee member ro khanna. thank you for being here. you heard the attorney general say that there is an effort underway among your party in congress to discredit him. what is your response? >> i say let's look at the facts and then your viewers can decide. on march 27th bob mueller sent a letter to the attorney general saying that he had issued a summary that was out of context, that didn't capture the full context of the report. one week later he was before the house and senate and he was

asked did bob mueller or anyone on his team have any concerns about your summaries? he said no. not to my awareness. my view is that is lying. that's our concern. >> jon: it's also true he didn't have to release the report. the report is given to the attorney general and it is his decision whether or not to release it. >> it is his decision. i think he should have released it earlier. but my concern is why is he misrepresenting what he did? why didn't he just say yes, bob mueller had concerns. i think this whole thing can get answered if bob mueller comes to congress, testifies, explains what he found and then we can move on and do things like infrastructure and prescription drugs. >> jon: the attorney general was asked in this interview whether democrats in congress would try to make him a target. listen to his exchange now with bill hemmer. >> bill: when you took this job did you think democrats would

make you the target? >> yes. >> bill: you were ready for that? >> yes. i thought i was in a position where this kind of criticism really wouldn't bother me very much. >> bill: what about the charge of contempt that has already passed in committee that may go to the floor of the house? holding you in contempt, what do you think of that? >> it's part of the usual political circus that's being played out. it doesn't surprise me. >> bill: you call it a circus. do you feel threatened? >> no, i don't feel threatened. >> jon: he seems pretty unphased by everything going on in congress at this moment. >> well look, he has a tough job but he has made his job much tougher. if he had just released the mueller report or if he had released the bob mueller summaries and hadn't usurped the process and tried to summarize it or been transparent with the american people we would be in a much better place. he has done a president a disservice. i think the president would have been much better off having the mueller report out

there without bill barr trying to characterize. >> jon: the mueller report is out there and americans can make their own decision and he is not allowed under law to release it without redacting grand jury and other sensitive information. >> two things. first the mueller report concluded that the russians interfered in our elections. sweeping, systematic, bob mueller indicted 37 people on that account. and we should thank him and thank the f.b.i. for having this counter intelligence operation. so we need to be focused on what we can do to prevent it. the second thing is we do need some of those unredacted portions to be able to question don mcgahn and others, the attorney general can go to the court and help us get that as ken starr did during his investigation. >> jon: as you know the attorney general also has some concerns about how some of this russia investigation came to be. and he has tasked a very tough u.s. attorney in connecticut with looking into how top

leaders at the f.b.i. and the c.i.a. and others came to use the steele dossier and other documents to go after charges of russia collusion. what do you think about that investigation? >> here is my concern with it. i have such great admiration and respect for those who serve in our f.b.i., in our c.i.a., in our military. they put their lives at stake to keep you and i and other people safe. and i resent the accusation that they are somehow politicized. are there bad actors? sure. when you have the head of the f.b.i., trump administration official christopher wray saying it was a counter intelligence operation to keep american safe from foreign interference. jim baker saying that, then we should listen to them and thank these agencies for the service they do for our country. >> jon: christopher wray has also changed the way the f.b.i.

conducts investigations saying it was wrong for the f.b.i. to conduct an investigation out of headquarters regarding the trump campaign. >> if there are changes that need to be made to make it better, let's look at that. but the fundamental investigation was not targeting the trump campaign. it was a counter intelligence operation, it wasn't based on the dossier, it was based on intelligence gathered from a foreign ambassador who had a conversation with papadopoulos and was concerned the russians were interfering. i want to make sure we prevent any interference whether it's russia, china, iran and salute the efforts of our intelligence agencies to help keep american safe. >> jon: we all agree that keeping foreign -- we'll hear more from the attorney general. he seems to feel there was not necessarily grounds for much of what transpired. last question. where do democrats go from here? >> what we really want to do is

pass an infrastructure bill. speaker pelosi and chuck schumer are meeting with the president. i would love to see us invest in our roads, in our broadband and our bridges, airports and do something for the country. but we're at the same time going to continue to ask to hear from mueller and others so we know the extent of the interference and the extent of the misconduct. >> jon: ro khanna, democrat from california, thank you. >> sandra: newly released court documents in the form of national security advisor michael flynn. what they will reveal about who reached out to him after he agreed to cooperate with the special counsel. >> jon: boeing finishes a software fix for its max 737 jets grounded after two deadly crashes overseas. what is next in getting those jets back into service? , which most pills don't. , flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one.

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>> sandra: boeing said it has completed a software fix for its max 8 jets after the two deadly crashes. it is now up to the faa to allow those jets back into service. dan springer following this for us live from seattle this morning. >> this time it won't just be up to the faa to give boeing the thumbs-up. due to the scope of the tragedies involving the 737 max boeing is taking the unusual step in bringing in regulators from p canada, china and european union to sign off before the planes fly passengers again. boeing's president said we're making clear and steady progress and are confident the 737 max with updated software will be one of the safest airplanes to fly. it intensified our commitment because lives depend on what we

do. 737 max please are stang up at the assembly plant in washington they keep building them. the company says the software fix to the anti-stall system is done and tested more than 360 hours on 207 test flights. right now regulators from the faa are submitting questions on that new software and once they and regulators from the other countries are satisfied, boeing will schedule certification test flight and once that's done will submittal the documents for final certification. the faa will be under intense scrutiny as it has taken a lot of heat for relying too much on boeing engineers and the questions kept coming during a hearing on capitol hill yesterday. the agencies acting administrator was grilled about why some key safety features were allowed to be optional. he says this time they'll get it right. >> as our work continues i want to offer this assurance. in the u.s. the 737 max will

return to service only from the faa's analysis of the facts and data indicate it's safe to do so. >> it will take weeks to months before those planes fly again with passengers. >> sandra: thank you. >> jon: attorney general bill barr covering a lot of ground in an exclusive interview with fox news. more of his interview with bill hemmer including his thoughts on the steele dossier. a new fox poll shows joe biden with a big lead over other 2020 democrats. newt gingrich says if they knew the real joe biden they wouldn't vote for him. the a-team weighs in on that at the top of the hour. we're family. we'd do anything for each other.

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>> we want to look into the meeting and the leaking of information subsequent to that meeting. >> bill: was that meeting in new york city? >> yes. >> bill: in trump tower? >> yes. >> bill: what questions do you have about what happened that day? >> i won't get into that. we need to look at it. >> bill: can you tell us how advanced you are in understanding that meeting? >> we're in the stage of

gathering all that information. if we go back in time in january of 2017 you are within that period before the president is sworn in. james comey is meeting at trump tower in new york city. pulls the president aside. briefs him on the dossier makes him aware they're aware and james comey said he left the trump tower meeting. went out to fifth avenue. got into his black s.u.v. and transcribed the notes from his meeting. hang onto that bit of information. that's a bit of a sign or indicator as to what bill barr is looking at now. in the meantime you have democrats who again are hot on his tail for a number of issues. they believe he lied before congress. they believe he overlooked the obstruction suggestion that was in the mueller report. they believe that they can now hold him in contempt of congress and look for that perhaps in the month of june. also they believe there was witness tampering. specifically on that question as it relates to the former lawyer for the president, don

mcgahn, when posed with that question whether or not he considered witness tampering once he got the mueller report bill barr explained his decision this way. >> that's a misconception. he was not asked to change his testimony. that was a reaction to a press story in "the new york times" that claimed that trump had told him to fire mueller. and trump -- i'm going by what the report said, i'm not arguing the case. but trump was mad at the word fire and claimed he never directed mcgahn to fire mueller. and in fact elsewhere the report does say that mcgahn was told by trump to talk to rosenstein to complain about conflicts of interest that mueller had and have mueller removed for conflicts of interest. there is a difference. if you remove someone for conflict of interest presumably someone else will be put in to

continue the investigation. and what trump was being accused of in the "new york times" was outright directing the firing of mueller. >> bill: there is another aspect of this, too. democrats claim that bill barr held the mueller report back, put out his own principle conclusions first in order to spin the story in favor of the white house and president. i asked him specifically about that spinning. he said shooting right back to democrats saying they didn't have the opportunity to spin the story themselves. i just make one more point, sandra and jon, going back to the steele dossier. in his own words bill barr describes that dossier on its face that had a number of clear mistakes. so how is it used and which hands did it go, why was it approved? all of this again is part of that investigation. an investigation i will point out that could take a very long time. 12 months is not a short period

of time for the way the legal process can work in the u.s. and with regard to the inspector general's report, remember two investigations currently underway under the purview of bill barr, the i.g. report is not finished. he hasn't seen it. it is not ready to be made public. with regard to this investigation it could be sometime before the new federal prosecutor gets into the meat of what was going on in the intelligence community during the obama administration especially that period of time between election day 2016 and inauguration day the third week in january. sandra and john. >> sandra: great stuff there, bill. more from el salvador and bill hemmer in that interview in a bit. >> jon: let's bring in the a-team. juan williams is fox news political analyst co-host of the five. ed henry national correspondent for fox news &y mccarthy former

assistant u.s. attorney. the attorney general first interview since taking the job. as a law enforcement officer, as a lawyer, what are you hearing him say that intrigues you? >> it's very interesting he has hoemd in on the january 6th meeting. that's the meeting in trump tower. now, important background to this meeting is the intelligence chiefs, the day before, briefed president obama on it and that was the meeting at which obama, as kind of attendant to the meeting, has a sit down with biden and susan rice on one side and then director of the f.b.i. comey, sally yates, then the acting attorney general, and on the discussion on the menu for discussion is what information about russia can we share with the incoming team? so i think it's very

interesting that the next day comey goes up to trump tower with brennan, clapper, i think the head of the n.s.a. as well and they give the president elect, in addition to a summary of the intelligence assessment that russia interfered with the election, they also give him a very abbreviated briefing on the steele dossier. in fact, i think it's almost incorrect to call it a briefing on the dossier because the sliver that trump is apparently told about is the salacious allegation about the prostitutes in the hotel in moscow. what comey doesn't say to him is oh, by the way, mr. president, since october we've been in the fisa court. we told the judge that your campaign was conspiring with putin to undermine the election. so we just wanted to -- >> jon: we were survielg *r veiling one of your advisors. >> jon: details on the meeting

immediately leak. >> the day before the trump tower. what did obama know how the dossier was used. and remember another part of what andy is saying to continue bill hemmer's fine reporting, which is a couple weeks later as the inaugural is about to happen on january 20th, i believe, there is an email that susan rice puts out for the record within their internal system that has come out in which she refers back to that earlier january meeting and says just to be clear we did everything by the book. let's get this on the record on january 20th before he leaves. that's the key. bill barr is now trying to get to the bottom of was it done by the book, yes or no? john brennan and others have been out there a long time beating up of president trump accusing him of treason and all these other things. now what they did behind the scenes will finally come out. >> sandra: juan williams. to repeat what we just heard

bill barr respond to bill when he said do you smell a rat in this situation? i don't know if i would describe it as that. the answers i'm getting are not sufficient. he says that multiple times in this interview that since he has taken this position, he has more questions now than when he started. >> i don't understand what's going on. i'm listening to all of this and my thought is also now it's not about spying. that he used before congress. now he is talking about what happened on january 6th at a meeting and whether or not there was sufficient briefing of the incoming president by the outgoing team? to me this is >> sandra: he has asked questions about that and the answers he finds are not sufficient. >> there are so many investigations already ongoing, the i.g. investigation, another investigation. he added a third layer to that. it seems to me he says to bill hemmer i have no evidence that

there was anything untoward going on. and what you have is you have the current f.b.i. director chris wray, trump person, saying no, no evidence of that. james baker who was the f.b.i. lawyer at the time has now repeatedly said nothing of this kind was going on. so you have people now locked in the weeds searching. >> bill barr is not back pedaling on the idea of spying. what's key here is that bill barr was telling bill hemmer the january time period during the transition is important. among other things he is trying to figure out whether john brennan and others were covering their tracks in january. james comey, about what they did before the fisa court in october. the other thing is what they brief him on is the predicate for the fisa surveillance. so it's all intermingled. >> the dossier is not the sole predicate. >> juan, they wouldn't have --

mccabe -- you have papadopoulos saying the russians have information to share on hillary. you have additional information and you have repeated fisa requests to the court so the court would at some point have said this is insufficient for us to -- >> sandra: final thoughts. >> if you mislead the court about what's in the dossier, which is evidently what they did the court wouldn't have reason. >> they didn't mislead anybody. >> we don't know. let's get the facts. >> sandra: thank you. another fox news alert this time involving michael flynn. court documents revealing the extent of his cooperation with the special counsel. showing the former national security advisor gave information to robert mueller about possible obstruction. catherine herridge has more on this from washington good morning. >> good morning. former national security advisor mike flynn told the special counsel of multiple instances before and after his guilty plea where he got calls from individuals connected to the administration or congress

quote that could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation. the defendant even provided a voicemail recording of one such communication. for context flynn had a joint defense agreement with the president's legal team. after he began cooperating with the special counsel there was an effort by the president's lawyers to protect privileged information. no obstruction charge was ever brought as a result of the special counsel investigation. speaking exclusively to fox news the former national security advisor's brother is reacting to this key section of the mueller report that indicates mike flynn was already under f.b.i. investigation during the 2016 presidential transition. >> general flynn went through 19 sessions with the special counsel approximately 90 hours of torturous interviews and this never came up the entire time. you would have thought it would have. and they would have maybe focused on that. it didn't come up at all. it was a surprise when the mueller report came out.

>> buried in volume 2 it states that investigators came across the ongoing f.b.i. probe of flynn while investigating flynn's discussion of sanctions with russian ambassador. previously the f.b.i. opened an investigation of flynn baisd on his relationship with the russian government. his contacts with kislyak became a key component. because flynn was close to the president and no f.b.i. briefing warning the campaign of an open investigation into flynn, a defensive braoefmgt it was previously thought flynn's phone calls with the russian ambassador led to the f.b.i. probe and now we know that wasn't the case. the special counsel office declined to answer our questions. >> sandra: thank you. >> jon: let's bring back the a-team juan williams, ed henry and andy mccarthy.

>> you still have to wonder why he lied to the f.b.i. at all. because if there was no collusion as it seems the mueller report found, general flynn and others should have just been open and here is my contact with the ambassador and moved on. that's an unanswered question. we haven't gotten the details from flynn. there are troubling questions for the trump administration about his cooperation now it appears general flynn with mueller about potential obstruction allegations and maybe that's part of the mueller report that we haven't seen that was redacted. so what more is there? again, i think as william barr has said let's follow the facts. too much speculation about this. but in this case what else does general flynn know that we don't know today? >> sandra: what should we take away from all this? >> two things. number one i think we were aware -- this is some of go catherine's excellent reporting on this earlier as well -- we were aware of the inquiry into

flynn earlier than the kislyak conversations because of nunes's committee report that came out some months back which talked about the fact that they were looking at flynn in connection not only with a trip that he had taken to moscow sometime back but also in connection with work that he had done for the turkish government as well. so that has been out there for a while. i think the other thing on the obstruction allegation, we've heard now that a district judge has said the government has to provide some of the information that they are referring to in some of the submissions that have been made in the case. that's the part that i think is most troubling, although one of the things i would point out is while there was olc -- office of legal counsel, justice department guidance would not have allowed them to charge a sitting president, if the president -- if mueller found that the president had used emissaries to extend offers or

otherwise obstruct the investigation or tried to tamper with witnesses, those people could have been indicted and we certainly know from mueller's investigation he knows how to do an obstruction case. he brought a number of them. >> the key issue here is why were they looking at flynn prior to the conversation with kislyak? what you just heard from andy is the case. not only had he made a trip to moscow. i think he is pictured sitting with putin at a table. and of course he had been -- >> he gave a speech or something. >> i'm saying he is sitting at a table with vladimir putin. he is working with the turkish government and again involved in these international affairs to the benefit potentially of russia in terms of the middle east issues. to my mind what you have here is a situation where there is russian interference, everybody has confirmed, and you have a legitimate inquiry into how

they are, the russians, trying to influence this campaign to benefit donald trump and whether or not there are ties to individuals in the trump campaign. you will recall that even at the very end president trump is saying to jim comey can you go light on mike flynn? these are some major flags, hard to ignore. >> may i just add, though. i don't want to tate general flynn. our investigation that i understand was a counter intelligence investigation. that doesn't necessarily mean he was suspected of doing anything wrong and the standards for opening that kind of investigation are different from a criminal investigation. >> sandra: thank you, andy, ed and juan we'll see you in a bit. up next the reason why attorney general bill barr is in el salvador taking the fight against ms-13 to the source. >> bill: let's do wiretaps through surveillance? >> the whole gamut of law

enforcement tools. >> bill: is it getting better? >> sandra: what is the answer to that question. we'll have that for you coming up next. u.s. attorney zach terwilliger weighs in on that. >> jon: back at home president trump is unveiling his plan to overhaul the immigration system in this country. will congress get on board? our a-team will be back on that. >> president trump: we will keep our communities safe, americans can have complete and total confidence that under this plan, the borders will finally be fully and totally secured. ♪

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>> jon: more of bill hemmer's interview with bill barr, our nation's top law enforcement officer visiting el salvador. one item getting a firsthand look at the source of ms-13, the notorious trans national gang that managed to cross the u.s. southern border and plague so many american cities. the a.g. addressing the issue while visiting a prison on the ground. >> the worst kind of violence against law enforcement and they continue today. >> bill: today? >> we're helping them on here.

>> bill: through wiretaps and through surveillance? what's it through? >> the whole gamut of law enforcement tools. >> bill: is it getting better? >> the murder rate has dropped from 103 to 50. to put that in context it's comparable to a very violent american city. that's the nationwide number. in the u.s. it's 4 per 100,000. >> jon: you have ms-13 members active in your part of the country. >> that's absolutely right. ms-13 has been active in the northern virginia area for quite some time and i spent the first nine years of my legal career doing battle against them. so i've had a front row seat to their callousness and the tremendous violence that they can bring to a community. >> jon: i've talked to a

suburban washington moms whose kids were walking home and wind up in the backyard of an ms-13 house. a horrific organization known for hacking limbs off people that it doesn't like and cutting up bodies, that sort of thing. is the attorney general right to try to bring the attention on the horrors of this gang? >> yes, without question. making his first trip to el salvador i believe sends a very strong message about our priorities, his priorities as far as reducing violent crime. as you just heard the attorney general mention, it is critical we have a strong partnership with the northern triangle countries. as we deport gang members at the end of their sentences or violation we have to have law enforcement sharing of information between ourselves and el salvador, honduras and guatemala. if we can't get a handle of what is happening with ms-13 in

the northern triangle the problem will be imported to the united states. i commend the attorney general making that trip and as he was talking about the information sharing, the use of the wiretaps that they have in el salvador as well as just us providing the latest and strongest investigative techniques by the training and support that we can provide and what's most troubling is ms-13 now and in the recent history is targeting and ambushing law enforcement and assassinating them. anything that happens in el salvador it is only a matter of time before that crosses the border into the united states. this being police week it is critical that we protect our women and men in blue. >> sandra: you are pushing the urgency here and the threat that this continues to pose to our residents here in the united states. at the very end of that clip you heard the attorney general answering the question bill asked is it getting better? he referenced specific numbers

to quantify the improvement we're seeing under this administration. the murder rate dropped from 103 per 100,000 to 50 per 100,000. that would be a significant improvement from where things were. >> without question. the violence in the northern triangle has gone through peaks and valleys. i am really buoyed by hearing that information. however, my experience with ms-13 is you can keep them down but if you let up a little bit the void will be filled by younger, more aggressive gang members. while that is tremendous work we should commend our law enforcement, we need to keep the pressure on and snuff out this gang. >> jon: the violence has been plaguing el salvador and northern triangle countries, that is coming here. the attorney general obviously is applauding efforts to

eradicate ms-13 but you are suggesting it's like mushrooms. it is going to continue in this country? >> well, i think we have made an incredible stride in our fight against ms-13. in the last two years in the way this department of justice and this administration has focused on trans national gangs in general, ms-13 in particular we've created awareness regarding ms-13. four or five years ago i would talk to people in my own community and they would misstate, is it ms9? ms-13 is a household name. we've identified the problem, attacking it. fishing with a spear, not a net and giving the tools in terms of additional prosecutorial resources, prioritization by homeland security and the department of justice and f.b.i. to go after these gang members. that's what we're doing and we're having unprecedented success. my point is we have to keep up the pressure. we need to keep driving. in my experience if we don't do

that, it will crop up again. >> jon: sounds like this justice department is doing that. zach terwilliger from the eastern district of virginia. >> sandra: a key court decision moments away in the jussie smollett investigation. there will be a special prosecutor to investigate how this case was handled? >> jon: brand-new fox polls showing former vice president joe biden gaining momentum in the race for the white house but what about a head-to-head match-up with the president? our a-team is back next. >> for people who like winning will vote trump and the republicans and the people who want to suck their thumb and wine will be for joe biden and the democrats and we'll see how the american people define themselves over the next year and a half. lease the 2019 es 350 for $379 a month for 36 months.

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investigate how the cook county states attorney handled the jussie smollett case. we're live inside the cook county courthouse where something could happen any moment now, matt, good morning. >> good morning, sandra. the hearing is scheduled to be underway right now. it is happening because after cook county states attorney kim foxx's office quietly dropped a 16 felony charges against act or jussie smollett. sheila o'brien filed a petition in the court saying an out of county special prosecutor should be assigned to investigate this entire thing. the public deserves the know the truth. just last week in court chief judge was set to make a ruling on the special prosecutor but the chief judge reluctantly agreed to pass this case because he has a son who works for kim foxx. the case was passed on to veteran judge, a judge in charge this morning. because the judge just got this case last week today's hearing could end up being a status

update or perhaps the judge will move forward with assigning or denying a special prosecutor which would be a rather substantial development in the jussie smollett case. justice sheila o'brien filed a petition requesting the special prosecutor to investigate kim foxx. o'brien questioned foxx's motives and alleges she meddled in the smollett case even after foxx recused herself. she also asked kim foxx why she didn't comply with illinois law. when foxx claimed she recused herself a special prosecutor couldn't have been assigned. justice o'brien argues kim foxx admitted she was unable to fulfill her duties when she refused herself and when a special prosecutor should have been assigned from the start. we're about to watch this hearing to see what happens and we'll update you throughout the day. >> sandra: thank you, matt.

we'll get back to you as news warrants. >> jon: 23 democrats are now running for president and joe biden leaving his rivals in the dust leading the race for his party's nomination by a wide margin. the new fox news poll showing biden could beat president trump in a hypothetical match-up in 2020. we're back with our a-team juan williams, liz harrington national spokeswoman for the republican nation until committee and ed henry. liz, are you worried? >> no, not at all. i think we should keep in mind that polls almost always oversample democrats and no offense to the fox poll but this poll as well polled 8% more democrats and when you ask 8% more you are likely to have the democrat winning by eight points or so. joe biden has a record to run on as well. it is not a good one. he has been in the swamp for 44 years. he has never delivered for the middle class and meanwhile

president trump has only been there for just over two years and we see this great reemergence of the middle class in our country with the booming economy. >> sandra: what we can do is look at the polling that we have and this is some of the latest on joe biden on his way up. he is leading by double digits to bernie sanders 17%. he is way up there. 35% right now, juan. elizabeth warren in single digits, pete buttigieg, kamala harris and beto o'rourke polling 4%. >> three things stand out from the fox poll, sandra. one as you said biden leading big. his lead has increased month-to-month. so he is gaining, which is a little bit of a surprise to me because initially you think name i.d. familiarity, obama is vice president in a democratic universe it could give him a leap out of the box. this has persisted. the second thing that stands out to me bernie losing, going down month-to-month.

so i don't know if that is -- if he is losing some of his -- >> sandra: do you think biden is the best shot your party has? >> the question for democrats is who can beat trump. the consensus is it's joe biden. the third thing that stands out to me is this, isn't it interesting that both elizabeth warren and pete buttigieg have edged up? they both moved up. beto o'rourke & the like have gone down. >> jon: we're a long way from 2020. >> the story this week that made me chuckle. it said biden's internal strategy is to take the big lead and make it a general election early. oh, hillary clinton had an that -- i don't think the democrats have learned that lesson. >> sandra: lara trump joipd us earlier on the program and i asked her about joe biden whether or not they see him as their biggest threat. here is lara.

>> none of the people feel like a huge threat to me. the people in this country in 2016 chose donald trump who had never been in politics before who they really didn't know how he would perform to be our president whereas all these other people, even joe biden, had eight years under the obama administration to do a lot of great things for this country and we didn't really see that. we feel very comfortable no matter who the candidate is. >> sandra: ed, the latest polling on that. if joe biden were in a head-to-head match-up with donald trump right now it reveals that he would beat him by 11 points. bernie sanders also would beat donald trump and elizabeth warren as well. >> back to my point. i think we'll find dozens of polls saying hillary clinton would beat donald trump by five and >> and she did. popular vote. >> the popular -- the polls tell you about the popular vote and donald trump won the white house. to jon scott's point it is early.

i think joe biden has gotten out to this early lead largely on name i.d. as juan said but also because i've been talking to a lot of senior democrats in private who say lawmakers and others who say they're very alarmed by aoc and bernie sanders and the others who have gotten the early attention and pushing socialist policies. it has gotten rank and file democrats very nervous that donald trump would beat someone hard left refly bad. they're coalescing behind biden. >> he says i'm not middle of the road. i want a revolution on climate change. he is adopting these far-left policies. i bet the plan will be socialist just like the green new deal is. >> sandra: always a pleasure. thank you, have a happy weekend. the white house putting the brakes on the high speed rail train in california. why the trump administration says the golden state did not hold up its end of the deal. >> jon: chicago is the first major city to have a netflix

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el salvador with bill hemmer and the attorney general. the first since he has been in this role and a good candid relationship is how he describes his relationship with the president. >> jon: you get the impression the attorney general is his own man. he is not particularly beholding to those members of congress who accuse him of all kinds of things and well -- >> sandra: a whole lot more from that interview coming up. >> jon: meantime california's high speed rail project on hold now. the trump administration withdrawing nearly a billion dollars saying the state failed to comply with the terms of the grant. the host of making money with charles payne, charles payne himself is here. >> it's a nice way of saying bait and switch. this plan was approved because it would connect two major cities. instead of this 520 mile high speed train it switched to 150

miles. it was going ton san francisco, instead it's bakersfield, fresno and it just -- the administration is saying listen, you guys are grappling. you made on offer, asked for the money. it wasn't going to be enough. instead of giving the money back you want to apply it to a different project. that's not what was agreed upon. >> jon: how many of these big infrastructure projects like that just go on and on an overspend. >> according to the american society of engineers we get a d minus on our infrastructure. we have trillions of dollars of projects that have immediate need right now. these vanity projects. it's ridiculous for any local government to try to get these done when you have some real emergencies out there. >> sandra: chicago, becoming the first major city to collect what is being called the netflix tax. more taxes for the city of

chicago. >> yeah, on anything streaming entertainment. so they call it the netflix thing. sony paid 1.2 million. even fan dangle had to cough up catch. the cities that overpromise that have all these issues and promises. they welcome everyone with open arms and they have gigantic issues and major problems and try to nickel and dime businesses with them. it's another one of the schemes that it is not going to help their issues. >> sandra: sony, fan dangle and raked in $2 million from doing that and now going after -- >> don't pick on them. it is a symptom of the large cities that are drowning in debt, grappling for anything. >> sandra: great stuff on the town hall. >> it was a lot of fun. >> jon: a new controversy over

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share the names of the two counties hacked nor the other counties where russian phishing attempts were made. many on both sides of the aisle have a big problem with. the florida voter has the right to know. the f.b.i. could declassify the information which it may or may not do. but florida republican matt gaetz told us he was not only livid about this but a bipartisan bill is being introduced in the house to make sharing of foreign intrusions of election system mandatory and public for all camps, local, state and federal. >> the f.b.i.'s argument is that they are not going to share information because supervisors of elections were victims and thus deserving of protection of their identity. that's crazy. the victim here is not some government official. the victim is the voter. the victim is the american election system. >> the f.b.i. and department of homeland security say in the hacking attempts there were no

vote totals that were impacted and no race outcomes winner and loser affected by the hacking but some voter data was obtained. >> sandra: now to a fox news alert. an exclusive interview attorney general bill barr talking to our own bill hemmer in a wide ranging interview. up next why the a.g. says he understands president trump's frustration with the russia saga. live to bill hemmer where he spoke with the attorney general next. and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. billions of problems. sore gums? bleeding gums? painful flossing? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath healthy gums oral rinse fights gingivitis and plaque and prevents gum disease for 24 hours. so you can... breathe easy, there's therabreath at walmart.

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>> bill: when you took this job did you think democrats would make you the target? >> yes. i thought i was in a position where this kind of criticism really wouldn't bother me very much. >> bill: what about the charges of contempt that has already passed in committee that may go to the floor of the householding you in contempt? >> part of the usual political circus that is being played out. it doesn't surprise me. >> bill: do you feel threatened? >> no, i don't feel threatened. >> bill: live in san salvador. a television exclusive with the attorney general bill barr. we came down here with the attorney general to explore what he is doing with the crackdown on ms-13. we had 20 minutes together yesterday afternoon in a prison 30 minutes west of the capital

city and where we conducted our interview. we talked about the crackdown on ms-13 and the democratic criticism aimed at him and we talked about a roadmap for what he is doing on his own internal investigation dating back to july of 2016 and the january of 2017 and perhaps even earlier than that. good morning, everybody on a friday. i'm bill hemmer live here. my co-anchor and colleagues in new york sandra smith and jon scott. good morning to you. >> sandra: the setting a hot jail in el salvador for the interview. great stuff throughout the morning. a lot more coming up, bill, thank you. bill barr saying he believes the white house fully cooperated with the special counsel's investigation and that he can understand why the president is so frustrated with all of the aftermath. back to you now, bill, for the next part of this big interview as we await more. >> bill: yes, sandra, he talked a lot about nancy pelosi.

he talked about bob mueller, his relationship with him. his relationship with donald trump. what he thinks about james comey today. i'll get all that in a moment here. but remember what the president's position has been from the beginning. called it a hoax, a witch hunt. i asked the attorney general about that. >> mueller decided not to force the issue with the president so he made that judgment. and i did say the white house cooperated. what i was referring to there was the truly unprecedented delivery of information in the form of millions of pages of documents and the ability to interview white house staff including the president's white house counsel with no holds barred. no privileged claimed at that point or anything. so that was unprecedented and that's what i was referring to when i said the white house. >> bill: did you find it satisfactory on behalf of the white house?

>> it's more than satisfactory. bob mueller felt it was >> bill: the president calls it a witch hunt and hoax. do you agree with that? >> if you were the president you would view it as a witch hunt at the hoax because at the time he was saying he was innocent and that he was being falsely accused. and if you're falsely accused, you would think that something was a witch hunt. i have to say when you step back and look at this, 2 1/2 years of this administration, three years of trump campaign and first part of his administration he has been hammered for something -- for allegedly conspiring with the russians. we now know that was simply false. >> bill: are you comfortable using those words witch hunt, hoax? >> i use what words i use and it was an investigation. but i think if i had been

falsely accused i would be comfortable saying it was a witch hunt. >> bill: you mentioned bob mueller a few moments ago. were you surprised that he came back with no recommendation on that obstruction charged? >> yes, it surprised me because the function of a prosecutor is to make a call one way or the other. >> bill: did you ask him why? >> we discussed it. >> bill: what did he say? >> i already have said we met on march 5 before he delivered the report and he gave an explanation for it and it is pretty much reflected in the report. >> bill: you are okay with him testifying? >> absolutely. >> bill: he works for you. or under you. >> yes. >> bill: or did. what seems to be the hold-up? jerry nadler said this week it will happen soon, perhaps it happens in june or not. do you have any information on that? >> my understanding is that chairman nadler is talking this over with bob mueller and his staff and trying to schedule it. >> bill: so you expect it to happen. >> i have no reason to think it

won't. >> bill: do you believe members of mueller's team around him put pressure on him to include certain aspects in that report? >> i don't want to speculate because i just don't know. >> bill: do you believe he gave in to that pressure? >> i don't want to speculate. i wasn't there to watch the interaction of his staff. >> bill: a lot of this now a bit of context with regard to the mueller stuff. a piece in the "wall street journal" just this morning that went online last night about the hold-up with bob mueller's testimony in the house. there could be executive privilege matters that would prevent bob mueller from answering a lot of these questions. there is a debate as to when this happens. some are making the case it could be pushed off even further. i think the first part of that answer, though, a little better context as well. democrats have been leveling heavy charges against bob mueller saying he is protecting the president and spinning here because he said the white house fully cooperated with investigation. there was no sit-down interview.

only a question and answer only in writing, the focus of the president's attorneys for a year's time did not want the president to sit down fearing a perjury trap on behalf of those on the special counsel. a little more context on that. now we move into more criticism on behalf of democrats. you remember nancy pelosi calls him out as a liar for his testimony on the hill back in april and the first and second of may. now just this week it happens that bill barr and nancy pelosi saw each other on capitol hill. let's go back to this exchange and starting with the house speaker. >> bill: let's move further into that aspect of this because you are being heavily criticized by democrats, by the house speaker nancy pelosi. she believes he lied under oath. what do you think of that charge? >> i think it's a laughable charge and i think it's largely being made to try to discredit me partly because they may be concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened during the election.

>> bill: what does that mean? >> that means they may be trying to undermine my credibility, but obviously you can look at the face of my testimony and see on its face there is nothing inaccurate about it. >> bill: you reportedly had a conversation with her this week. >> yes. >> bill: what did you say to her? >> i wouldn't call it a conversation. it was more like an ice breaker. i was introduced and asked if she had brought her handcuffs with her. i didn't quite here what she said. she wasn't unpleasant about it. >> bill: what she will say and democrats will say is that you were spinning on behalf of the president with the principle conclusions you released. they leveled charges you held back the mueller report for several weeks. were you spinning for the white house to buy time? >> no, i wasn't. what they really are perhaps annoyed about is they didn't have an opportunity to spin and the fundamental findings of the report were out there for

everybody to see. and they were not in a position to spin. >> bill: a few more headlines. no problem with bob mueller testifying. he describes their relationship. we're still friends. with regard to his relationship with the president. a good relationship, a good, candid relationship and then you have the issue of james comey who just this week sandra and jon said that bill barr has lost his soul. when i asked him about that specific comment he said those people are not concerned about my legacy and so it goes. more coming up in a moment here from san salvador. >> sandra: thank you. we'll see you again shortly. let's bring if chris wallace anchor of "fox news sunday". good morning to you. i'm sure you've been watching this interview throughout the morning. what is your takeaway so far? >> as somebody who does interviews for a living, when you watch somebody else do interviews you always say well gee, i would have asked or what

about? i think that brother hemmer did a hell of a job and squeezed the sponge dry getting everything that bill barr was prepared to say. and what really comes across to me most of all is that for two years donald trump sat there and said i don't have an attorney general. i don't have somebody out there looking for an protecting my interests. he clearly has that now with bill barr. not saying that barr isn't right in everything he says. but he clearly is protecting this president and advocating his point of view on a lot of these issues. i suspect that as president trump who probably has watched some of this interview himself is saying finally no jeff sessions, bill barr instead. >> sandra: i want to watch this clip with you, chris, on bill barr answering the question about accusations that he lied and the situation with charlie crist and crist von holl en.

here is the attorney general. >> bill: when they question your testimony with charlie crist in florida and chris van hollen. is that upfront? >> up front and completely accurate. >> bill: you said i don't know whether bob mueller supported my conclusion. >> that question that he asked me was about my conclusions along with rod rosenstein that there had been no obstruction and he was asking whether bob mueller agreed with those conclusions and i don't know. >> bill: in your view there was no con try dick shun. >> one was bob mueller's conclusion and one was my conclusion. >> it's why we have lawyers. they can sit there and parse language and cut it up into fine pieces. i think what critics would say is you were being asked both by in the house by charlie crist and in the senate by chris van

hollen whether you knew the mueller team was satisfied what you said. he took a very lawyerly and precise approach. it was only afterwards we found out that mueller had called him the day after he issued his conclusions and said he wasn't happy with it. so look, you know, i'm not a lawyer, bill barr is a very accomplished lawyers. he can make a case. other lawyers who would say whether he lied or not he certainly was not forthcoming to either crist or van hollen when he answered their questions about what he new about mueller's opinion. >> sandra: more on that interview in a moment. want to ask you about 2020 here, chris, when we look at the latest polling on the nominee preference for democrats joe biden topping the list. searching ahead a double digit lead over bernie sanders, joe biden pulling 35%, bernie sanders 17%, elizabeth warren, kamala harris and pete

buttigieg in single digits. >> you don't make too much of it. joe biden has a lot of support inside the party from more moderate and establishment people from for instance who credit him for his service with barack obama for eight years as vice president. on the other hand this race isn't even begun. let's see joe biden appear on the debate stage with nine other candidates at the end of june. and see how he does. that's going to be the real test. how does he stand up? he has not been a successful presidential campaigner in the past both in his first run in 1988 and then again against barack obama in 2008. maybe it will be different in 2020. we'll have to see how he does and when he is challenged. two issues, one his age and how he stands up and whether he looks like he is ready and able to take on the challenges of being president and secondly he will get hit a lot on his long record.

a lot of the positions he has taken on things like the crime bill and abortion and busing and anita hill. it's a solid early lead as you say, expanded early lead when when he first got into the race. a lot of it is based on name recognition. he will have to earn the lead on the campaign trail. >> sandra: pete buttigieg the town hall chris wallace 7:00 p.m. sunday night. looking forward to that. >> you bet. we'll be talking -- he is one of the more interesting characters in this whole race. started at 0% in the polls. now as you can see in the latest poll either running third or fourth. if he were elected he would be the youngest mayor and openly gay mayor, a rhodes scholar, afghanistan veteran. he is smart and has interesting things to say about issue and the structure of our campaign process. we'll talk to him with the good people of clairemont, new hampshire on sunday.

i want to say this. i have a feeling this will appeal to you, sandra, you can watch this entire town hall and then switch for the finale of "game of thrones". you won't miss a minute. there is talk about having an iron throne for him to sit on in the town hall in clairemont. >> sandra: these things are important, chris. we're looking forward to it 7:00 sunday night town hall, pete buttigieg. thank you. >> jon: chris will be breathing fire. attorney general barr defending himself against his critics as he vows to look into how the mueller probe began. chris swecker joins us on that, next.

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>> jon: president trump's emergency declaration to use unappropriated funds for his border wall is facing its first legal hurdles. lawyers for 20 states and organizations like the aclu are asking a federal judge in california to block the wall's construction as thousands of migrants continue to cross the border illegally. william la jeunesse is live in california. william. >> jon, the cornerstone of the wall is money. take that out and the plan crumbles. that's important. this fence is scheduled to be replaced. that's mexico, the city has grown a great deal. apprehensions are up 163%. people can jump this fence. it's 30 years old. six feet tall. they disappear into that this area. that's night they made an

apprehension of a convicted child molester. they want an 18 foot fence to replace it. 19 states are trying to stop it today if federal court. it argues the president's emergency declaration is illegal because it bypasss the normal appropriations process after congress explicitly rejected his demand for more wall money. if the judge, an obama appointee, agrees to cut it off the access to $6 billion in pentagon money could be cut off. either side will appeal. an injunction could stop the construction. something the president predicted could happen. >> president trump: i'll sign the final papers as soon as i get into the oval office and we'll have a national emergency and we will then be sued and they will sue us in the ninth circuit even though it shouldn't be there and we will possibly get a bad ruling and then we'll get another bad ruling and then we'll end up in

the supreme court and hopefully we'll get a fair shake and we'll win in the supreme court. >> to avoid future funding fights the president propose aide permanent fund to pay for border security improvements but fees assessed to imports and exports and cars and everyone going through the border to be sciend. asylum seekers i said too many are making frivolous claims and wants them to stay south of the border. that hearing begins in oakland. the border patrol has begun sending migrants out of texas to florida for processing because things are so overwhelmed in texas. back to you. >> jon: tremendous numbers. >> sandra: dangerous storms set to hit parts of the country where the weather could be very tough this weekend. >> jon: the general general

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that was easy. yup. plus, with two-hour appointment windows, it's all on your schedule. awesome. now all you have to do is move...that thing. [ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. it's just another way we're working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. >> sandra: a wall of storms threatening in 18 states now with powerful thunderstorms and attorneys this weekend. it could impact most of the midwest and southwest. forecasters saying some areas out west may see up to five inches of rain, which is unusual for this time of year. >> james comey has a lot to say about you. he recently said you have lost your reputation. what do you think of him? >> i've noticed the talking

point. barr's legacy is being upset because of his service in this administration. i don't think those people are really concerned about my legacy. >> jon: responding to criticism from james comey as barr reviews the origins of the russia probe which began on comey's watch. chris swecker is a former assistant director of the f.b.i. and joining us now. you heard some of what the attorney general told our bill hemmer. what do you think about the probes that are underway, multiple probes into the origins of the russia investigation? >> first i think bill barr has the knowledge and skills and experience and he has a pretty hard bark on him to withstand all the criticism. he is not worried about what people are saying about him and he is making some hard decisions and calls that need to be made. we know there are some red flags up there.

how the dossier was used in the fisa application, whether the investigation that took a well-predicated investigation on russian interference into a presidential campaign was appropriately based on factual information and sufficient to justify opening the investigation. we know there were extensive leaking. when you leak you have an agenda. the question is did some of the investigators especially at the executive level have some type of political agenda? i think it's entirely appropriate to look into it. he picked the right guy in john durham and the inspector general. i have a feeling we'll actually get to the bottom of the thing. >> jon: what the attorney general says what he is looking for. >> i think people have to find out what the government was doing during that period. if we're worried about foreign influence for the very same reason we should be worried

about whether government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale. and so i'm not saying that happened, but i'm saying we have to look at that. >> jon: the f.b.i. has tremendous power and the attorney general wants to know whether the f.b.i. or maybe some other agencies were trying to steer the election one way or the other. >> sure. electronic surveillance, fisa, even criminal surveillance using electronic means is the most intrusive technique they have in the tool box. it has been entrusted to the f.b.i. and other agencies. if they can do that to a political campaign, what can they do to an ordinary citizen? it's entirely appropriate to look into it. in terms of factual information that reaches a threshold to open an investigation is an important part of this puzzle but also the fisa process itself being truthful in fisa

affidavits. being full some in terms of the information that's in there. you have to disclose information that might contradict the information you provided, use of paid informants and how they're used and the information is used is critical. what's important here is -- i've said this earlier, is to make sure that we know what happened so we can make some reforms if we need to. we can shore up some processes. and if mistakes were made or things were done deliberately we can make sure it will never happen again. >> jon: chris swecker who spent a long career rising to its assistant director, thanks for your insights today. >> sandra: saudi arabia calling for surgical strikes on iran as the u.s. boosts its military in the persian gulf. >> jon: president trump

proposes a shift to a merit-based immigration system. but the plan faces an uphill battle in congress. some are saying it's dead on arrival. we'll get reaction from senator marsha blackburn next. >> president trump: together we'll create an immigration system to make america safer and stronger and greater than ever before.

>> sandra: saudi arabia blaming iran for a drone attack that knocked out a key oil pipeline in the kingdom. a state aligned saudi newspaper calling on the u.s. to launch surgical strikes in retaliation. with tensions already high between washington and tehran. jennifer griffin is live from the pentagon this morning. good morning, jennifer. >> iran's foreign minister ruled out direct talks with the u.s. but the head of the security committee is calling for u.s. and tehran to hold

direct negotiations amidst rising tensions blaming and unnamed third party trying to stoke a war between the u.s. and iran. a veiled reference to saudi arabia whose leaders blame tehran for a drone attack that knocked out an oil pipeline. the attack against the two pumping stations proves that these militias are merely a tool that iran's regime uses to implement its expansionist agenda in the region. a newspaper close to the saudi palace called for the u.s. to carry out surgical strikes on iran. adding tension to the stand-off, u.s. defense official efs confirmed the u.s.s. abraham clinton strike group is carrying a large number of tomahawk missiles in the arabian sea. the next step should be surgical strikes. the u.s. set a precedent and had a telling effect. the trump strikes on syria when

the assad regime used seron gas against its people. the u.s. pulled out of the iran deal a year ago and the current oil embargo that china has shown a willingness to break. >> the escalation by the united states is unacceptable and uncalled for. we exercise maximum restraint in spite of the fact the united states withdrew from the iran deal last may. we remain committed to that. >> the pentagon hasn't declassified the satellite images they say show iranian missile cargo that led to the build-up of u.s. forces. >> sandra: jennifer griffin at the pentagon this morning. thanks. >> president trump: my plan expedites relief for legitimate asylum seekers by screening out the meritless claims.

if you have a proclaim, you will quickly be admitted. if you don't, you will promptly be returned home. >> jon: that's president trump talking about changes he wants to see to the nation's immigration laws to overhaul the system and give preference to english-speaking, skilled and well-educated applicants. his proposal is catching heat from both parties. let's bring in senate judiciary committee member marsha blackburn. at first look what do you think? >> i applaud him for putting something on the table and just as i applaud senator graham who chairs our committee for bringing forward a bill that will address some of the things that the border patrol wants to see done. you know, jon, one of the things we have to realize is this is one of the hottest topics and most talked about topics with all of our citizens. as i'm across tennessee, it is

issue number one. second thing they talk about is how great the economy is. but here is the thing. until we secure that southern border and end all the trafficking of drugs and human beings and gangs and the sex trafficking, until we do that, every town is a border town and every state is a border state. and as we have talked with law enforcement officers from our communities this week, during national police week, one of the things they have mentioned to us is the impact -- the negative impact on our communities that the open border on the southern border is having. >> jon: the president talked about that and says that it's part the reform of the laws is part of the effort just as important really as building the wall. listen to this. >> president trump: as we close the gaps in our physical framework, we must also close

the gaps in our legal framework. critical to ending the border crisis is removing all incentives for smuggling women and children. >> jon: the word is out in central america if you show up at the u.s. border with a child in tow they'll let you in. that seems crazy. >> well, it is so inappropriate and that's why we are tightening those restrictions around asylum seekers and allowing that to be filed in their home countries. likewise, i'm introducing legislation and working on an information sharing provision between d.h.s. and h.h.s. so that we are certain that health and human services and homeland security know the identities of these traffickers and know if they truly are related to a child and who that child is

being turned over to in the u.s. and what their identity is. many times these people are not in the country legally. and the last thing we want to do is to see a child turned over to a labor gang or a sex gang or into an ms-13 gang. and jon, protecting these children is paramount. that's why senator graham is so spot on when he says let's change these rules around asylum. and it is why the president is so spot on when he said whether it's border patrol or immigration services or ice, what we have to do is listen to them and then take action on what they are saying. they have to have done to secure our southern border. >> jon: let's hope that both houses of congress and the

white house can come together on some kind of plan to fix the problem. because it is clearly out of control at the southern border. we have to say goodbye. senator marsha blackburn. we appreciate it. >> sandra: maybe you've heard about it by now. a big change is coming to the s.a.t.s, how the college board is planning to take a student's background into account. plus attorney general barr defending himself after democrats accused him of acting as the president's personal lawyer. >> bill: how would you describe your relationship with president trump? >> i would say it's a good relationship. he is a very engaged president. play it cool and escape heartburn fast with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. ♪ tum tum tum tums with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. there is wisdom in how nature protects and it inspired an all-new toothpaste from burt's bees®.

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>> sandra: the s.a.t.s are getting an update. the college board saying it's adding an adversity score to level the playing field with

admissions. reflects a students' social and economic background among other things. you have said it is not an adversity score. that's not what the college board is calling it. that's what the media is calling it. what is it? >> general background information. let me give you a sense. let's take a young woman from mississippi, a college partner that we're working with looked at her score. on average was about the same as other applicants for the college. she is a young woman in a rural school and then they looked at the context. how did that s.a.t. score compare to other students in the school. and she was 400 points higher. they then saw her neighborhood nothing specific about no individual data is used. the neighborhood and school doesn't have advanced opportunities. >> sandra: her score was 400 points higher. how did you determine that? >> than other students' s.a.t. school at her high school. >> sandra: got it. how does that play into you

adding to her overall s.a.t. score? >> i'm sorry for the conclusion. i'm saying colleges get a context. we don't change the s.a.t. score. it is not a new score. >> sandra: there is no new score based on the socio-economic background. >> it's a general context to look at scores. if you look at a test score alone but don't know she was 400 points higher than her peers you might miss her resourcefulness. only when you look at a score in context can you see that despite growing up in a more poor neighborhood with less resources she has done so well. >> sandra: there could be cases like that all over the country where a student had to work much harder, we understand that. you are calling it the environmental context dashboard. you are saying in addition to the s.a.t. scored, the standardized test score, that female student has you'll provide the context of her high

school and the town in which she lives. >> perfectly. >> sandra: how much does it influence the college admission process? >> they are looking for those students that distinguished themselves. sadly adversity is widespread. all the kids at the schools have the same ranking and all the kids from the school and town will have the same measure. when you look at her it's her performance on the s.a.t. and in that context. >> sandra: have you thought about the unintended consequences of something like this? >> we have to. the unintended consequences in not doing is not seen. >> sandra: what unintended consequence could there be? how long do you have to live in that town to take the test and have the context provided to the college? >> several rules we're putting in place to monitor the kind of ways people try to take advantage. ill tell you that overwhelmingly in this country a lot of poor and low income

people live in the same place for a very long period of time. achievements are not witnessed as clearly as other students and so if you look at rural america where there is not a lot of transients, for example. >> sandra: you'll be challenged a lot on the fairness of this. surely you take into account 15 different measures that calculate into a student. that cover all the adversity a student faces. you may not know what someone goes through on a daily basis. that is not being provided. that person might live in a very rich town with a very high level public school system. >> you are so right and that's room for the essay. high schools submit profiles to colleges to tell them about themselves. colleges are looking for students who overcome challenges. we allow a way if a student doesn't talk about it in the

essay. for a cancer survival -- >> sandra: the article talked about a score being provided to the colleges that then the student never sees. so that's not the case you're saying. >> it's a general context for viewing the individual s.a.t. score. >> sandra: where is it implemented today? >> 50 colleges in a pilot used it to look at student results and it will be used more widely if colleges find it useful. >> sandra: why not do away with the s.a.t. >> let's talk about the girl in mississippi who did so well. we see her because she achieves so much and she accomplished something amazing. more amazing in context when you see it relative to the students around her and the neighborhood. >> sandra: i have to ask you about the college cheating scandal. it all plays into the fairness debate that is happening with the college admissions process.

what is fair? i want to get the college board's response to what we're seeing there and potential changes down the road. parents? this is the biggest concern starting from a toddler all the way through grade school and up where my kid is going to go to college. it's one of the biggest stresses. so what is the environment today? >> a couple of quick things on the cheating scandal we've tracked down. we should stop and prosecute cheating and we're working with the federal government to do that. about the broader issue you raise, the stress and unproductive stress in family's lives we have to take steps to stop the madness, calm things down in college admissions. one thing we're trying to do with the new tool is to say to families who grew up with less and given a lot less in this world that they, too, have a shot. all we're trying to say if you distinguish yourself by performing well in demanding circumstances we see you. >> sandra: interesting. you've sparked quite a debate with this.

i'm sure it won't end anytime soon. thank you for your time this morning. >> jon: attorney general bill barr responds to criticism from democrats and special counsel as to how he summarized the mueller report. also accusations that he has run interference for president trump. >> that's one of the reasons i felt i might be in a position to help in that i thought i was in a position where this kind of criticism really wouldn't bother me very much. call newday. home values are rising, and with newday's va cash out home loan, you can borrow up to 100 percent of your home's increased value. you could get 54,000 dollars or more and lower your payments by over $600 a month. with automatic authority from the va, newday can say yes when banks say no. take advantage of your home's increased value. call newday usa now. go to newdayusa.com or call 1-800-405-6714

mno kidding.rd. but moving your internet and tv? that's easy. easy?! easy? easy. because now xfinity lets you transfer your service online in just about a minute with a few simple steps. really? really. that was easy. yup. plus, with two-hour appointment windows, it's all on your schedule. awesome. now all you have to do is move...that thing. [ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. it's just another way we're working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started.

the latest inisn't just a store.ty it's a save more with a new kind of wireless network store. it's a look what your wifi can do now store. a get your questions answered by awesome experts store. it's a now there's one store that connects your life like never before store. the xfinity store is here. and it's simple, easy, awesome. >> bill: we're live before we close out the broadcast, want to bring you a little more of our interview with bill barr as he talks about he has known bob mueller for a very long time.

let's go to that right now. >> bill: when did you speak with him last, correspond with them? >> it was i think the thursday after he delivered his report when we had a telephone call. but there is no -- >> bill: that has been several weeks. >> it's not because of any strain between us or anything. >> bill: your relationship goes back 30 years. how is it today? >> i haven't had the opportunity to spend much time with him since he took on the assignment. i haven't spent time with him since he took on the assignment. i would say we're still friends. >> bill: another topic here on his relationship with the president. there has been a lot of criticism from democrats saying he is doing the president's work. we asked about that as well. >> bill: the reason i ask you that democrats have charged that you're the president's attorney now. >> they don't know what they're talking about. >> bill: did you think thater eric holder was the attorney

for president obama? >> i think at times he did act that way but attorney generals are frequently accused of that. >> bill: like bobby kennedy and jfk? >> attorneys general are accused of being that way. i don't know what they're referring to. when i was up for confirmation i promised that i was going to make the report available. i didn't have to. the report was supposed to be confidential. i said i would err on the side of transparency. i got it out. minimal transactions, every american read it and make up their mind about it. >> bill: on a similar note a lot of viewers have been corresponding with us throughout the last three hours asking for the full interview. it is available now on my podcast hemmer time on fox news radio, our website. it's on fox news.com and posted already. you can listen to the full 20 minutes about ms-13 and the crackdown, more on the mueller

matter. about things don't hang together. the context for a lot of this investigation goes back to valentine's day of this year. he is sworn in and starts asking questions and the answers he gets do not make sense to him and that's when he launches the investigation as to where we are now with the appointment of special prosecutor who has been on the job for several weeks. it's all happening now. will it take some time? certainly. will democrats stay on bill barr as a target? no question as we move into june we'll see what happens on the floor of the house and democratic leadership there. >> sandra: a lot of great stuff there. a lot of reaction. we'll continue to pour into that interview today. the trump administration bringing out a tool that highlights social media accounts and political bias. is that a good move? that story in our next hour.

>> jon: fox news alert, hearing underway right now is a chicago judge was whether to assign a special prosecutor to investigate the handling of the jussie smollett case. this after the attorney dropped all charges against the actor in march. a grand jury indicted smollett in connection with an alleged attack police say he staged against himself. an appellate judge later filed a petition requesting a special prosecutor, to take a fresh look at the case. we are keeping an eye on the hearing and we will bring you details as we get them. >> sandra: the newsroom vault taking us back to 1792 when the new york stock exchange was founded, 227 years ago today. 24 brokers and merchants signing the buttonwood agreement, under a buttonwood tree on wall street. in the beginning, only five securities traded in new york city. the first listed company being the bank of new york. what a day that was and what a

history that has been. >> jon: we don't have video of it. [laughter] >> sandra: hey, great stuff from bill hemmer in el salvador today. we wish him a safe trip back. watch the town hall with pete buttigieg and chris wallace this saturday. thanks, jon. "outnumbered" starts right now. >> harris: fox news alert, we begin with the reaction to an exclusive interview with a change in her william barr sitting down with fox news for his first interview since joining the trump administration. the ag revealing new details in his investigation into the origins of the russia probe, and much more. as president trump issues a warning to those who he accuses of targeting his 2016 campaign. a lot to get to on this fine friday. glad you're with us. this is "outnumbered," i'm harris faulkner. here today, town hall editor and fox news contributor, katie pavlich. fox news contributor, lisa boothe. fox news contributor, jessica tarlov. the center seat, editor in