politic politics often invades sports, ask and sports often invades pollices in trivial ways, but we have to give the iranian soccer team credit for bringing attention to a struggle going on now in iran. paul: that's it for this week's show. thanks to my panel is and to all of you for watching. i'm paul gigot, hope to see you right here next week. many. ♪ arthel: heartbreaking developments in a kidnapping case in texas where police say a 7-year-old girl who went missing this week has been found dead. a delivery driver is now charged with her murder and kid mapping. welcome to " fox news live, i'm arthel neville. eric: hello, everybody, i'm eric shawn. the little girl was found yesterday afternoon in the town of boyd about 30 miles northwest of dallas. the county sheriff says iowa three that was kidnapped -- iowa three that was snatched from her

family's driveway. two days later a tip led misto arrest 31-year-old tanner lynn horner, a federal express contract driver who report toedly was making a delivery at iowa three that's house and confessed to abducting the little girl from it. we have the latest to this horrific case. nate foy. >> reporter: this story just breaks your heart. iowa three that vanished wednesday night while her stepmom made dinner, and authorities confirm she is, in fact, dead. the weiss county of sheriff says they found her body about 10 miles from her home in paradise, texas, late last night. more than 200 volunteers joined authorities in looking for her. the 31-year-old fedex driver, tanner lynn horner, is charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. he's being held right now on a $1.5 million bail, and authoritieses say they honed in on him from the very beginning. listen to this.

>> we knew early on in the investigation that there had been a fedex driver made a delivery in front of the house about the same time that little athena, the 7-year-old, came up missing. and continued good work by investigative team, they were able to determine that the driver abducted athena. >> reporter: so, eric, fedex tells fox news today this saint, quote: words cannot describe our shock and sorrow at the reports surrounding this tragic event. first and foremost, our thoughts are with the family during most difficult time, and we continue to cooperate fully with the investigating authorities. at this time any further questions should be directed to law enforcement. now, speaking of questions, right now my sort of motive is not known. authorities say horner didn't know athena or her family, and we're also waiting on the autopsy results to learn exactly how she died.

eric? eric: just so tragic. nate, thank you. arthel? arthel: horrible. meanwhile, nearly three weeks after four university of idaho students were brutally murdered, investors still have no suspect, no murder weapon or a motive. fox news spoke with police about where this investigation stands, and christina coleman is live in moscow, idaho, with the very latest. christina, you've been covering this story from the gunning. what more can you el us now? >> reporter: hi, arthel. well, there was some confusion and frustration the here in the community base off of the statement that police put out about this investigation whether they believe this attack was targeted or not. in a new interview with idaho state police who discussed this, we talked about i thoroughly, and they do believe that this deadly and disturbing incident was targeted. take a listen to what they said. >> targeted attack, and that's based on, you know, the information that we have provided all along that did not

appear to be my portioned entry. there were finish forced entry, there were two survivors and the physical ed at scene itself. we're not sure at this time, we have not yet determined at this time if that target was the residents and/or the outs inside the less -- occupants inside the residence. >> reporter: this is video from merchandise the idaho state police -- inside the idaho state police lab. the lab correcter seant this to us morning. this video does not show testing on the evidence in this specific case, but i'm told this is where sign its are working around chock to get -- scientists are working around the clock to get analysis to help solve this quadruple homicide. the dna evidence is going to be key considering the traumatic and grisly crime scene. also yesterday at a celebration of life service for the students kill in this deadly attack, madison -- sorority the sisters

shared touching stories about her. macy say she -- they say she will be missedded dearly. >> she was one of the best friends, and that was just a bonus. but she was easily the best person that i knew. she loved everyone around her more than life. >> reporter: we just heard so many heartbreaking and touching stories this week about all the victims. there were a number of vigils and ceremonies held in honor of hose students killed in that brutal attack. now, again, the community very clearly still grieving as police work very hard to try and track down the killer in this case. back to you. arthel: christina coleman there live in moscow, idaho, so sad. thank you. ericsome. eric: arthel, twitter's ceo elon musk, well, pulling back the curtain just a bit on how the social media giant went out of its way, it seems, to block the new york post's reporting on

hunter biden's laptop just weeks before the 2020 election. the twitter e-mails show that officials this thought it was result of russian hacking. musk says he will reveal even more internal documents, what he calls round two, sometime later today. alexandria of has more washington. >> reporter: twitter's new ceo is expected to do a q&a session today as well as releasing part who of these twitter files. he believes that the internal documents shared show that twitter took censorship direction mostly from democrats including then-candidate biden's team. ore e veal, musk provided the company's communications to math if99 taibbi who refers to himself as critic of online censorship. taibbi compiled that information into a lengthy tweet thread beginning with how political influence occurred at the company. quote, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were

routine. one executive would write to another -- [inaudible] from the biden team. the reply would come back, handled. taibbi said users could be reviewed with democrats proving more powerful due to the political makeup of twitter's staff. the thread also notes the extraordinary steps taken to renew york post's reporting on hunter biden's laptop by marking the story as unsafe and ute withizing a tool reserved for extreme cases like child pornography. the screen shots show that when questioned by colleagues for disabling accounts that shared the story, a twitter executive justified the action saying it violated the company's hacked materials policy. democrat congressman ro khanna took issue with that and reached out to twitter at the time. he tells fox news, quote: i believe our constitution and first amendment are sacred. as the congressman who represents silicon valley, i felt twitter's actions were a violation of paris amendment principles, so i raised those concerns -- first amendment.

taibbi also suggest that twitter's then-ceo, jack dorsey, likely knew very little about the censorship taking place. eric? eric: alexandria, thank you. around arthel? -- arthel? arthel: elon musk says his beef with apple has been resolved after the billionaire accused the iphone maker of threatening to remove twitter from its app store and accrues caused the company of -- accused the company of trying to censor content. spotify's ceo tweeted: as apple continues to inflict harm, the momentum is real. let's bring in doug burns now, former federal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. doug, musk said tim cook was career that a -- clear that the apple never considered removing twitter from its app store. so was this an e elon musk stunt? >> it was interesting, arthel, because you saw all the messages about how, you know, apple is threatening to kick twitter off of the app. and remember, 64% apparently of

the users, twitter users, do it on an ipad or an iphone, so it was a huge thing. and then all of a sudden, you know, like a shot across bow, we see, oh, i walked around the campus with him, everything's fine, we had a lovely discussion, and he assured me that was never his intent. so to your question, yeah, it very well might have been a stunt because he wants to reignite the discussion about apple's power, arthel. that's what he's doing. arthel: yeah. because, as you pointed out, doug, you know, the apple app store is the only place to get the apps for your iphone. you've got more than a billion iphones in the world, so elon musk joined tech leaders from spotify, we just showed that tweet, and epic games. they're complaining that apple takes 30%, a 30% cut of hair app sales. i end mean -- their app sale. i mean, is apple's practice legal? >> epic, arthel, brought a lawsuit, and it's been pending for a couple of years over that

very issue of the 30% fee. and there's been a lot of talk also in terms of antitrust, 40 monopoly, market share that apple has too much of that. so i another part of this, it's interesting, is that maybe all of these inti it'sties are trying to get some congressional action, oversight, antitrust investigation going because of this. arthel: yeah. >> and to your point, i mean, the 30% itself is legal, but at the same time, if it creates too much of a market share, you could get into antitrust type issues. arthel: uh-huh, yeah. and congress is working on that as we speak. so we'll see how that turns out. and also a, doug, you know that apple's rules prohibit hate speech, and they also a police the apps. and sin elon musk took -- since elon musk took over twitter, hate speech has increased dramatically targeting black people, gay men, jewish people. here's a quote from the chief executive of the center for

countering digital hate. quote: elon musk sent up the bat signal to every kind of racist, misogynyst and homophobe that twitter was open for business. they have reacted accordingly. so, doug, if a hate speech tweet incites violation, can elon musk face legal or criminal jeopardy? >> well, it's interesting that a you added incites violence, you're exactly right. hate speech. >> and of itself, and i know it sounds controversial, but hate speech can be protected by the first amendment. however, as you just said, arthel, the minute speech can be fairly categorized as inciting violence, egging on violence, you know, clear example, go throw molotov cocktails at that building and thenlesser ones to interpret them -- lesser ones to interpret them, if you're trying to incite violence, it's not protected free speech. one other point, very important, is remember -- and you've heard a lot of chatter about this, you

know, twitter is not the government, it's a private entity. so from that standpoint, free speech under the first amendment may not technically apply. however, if the government's involved with them, the fbi, the intelligence community, for example, then it can be deemed sort of quasior de facto government. -- cause sigh. hate speech inciting violence absolutely can be policed and squashed. arthel: yeah. because, i mean, i get it. right now he's a private company, but who wants to have hate speech all over place? and car accident yeah, freedom of speech is one thing, but hate speech is wrong. of and you've got a lot of people out will with pent-up emotions in various issues, and they act on things that that they a read like the guy said, he feels like, mr. ahmed said elon musk had sent up the bat signal to every kind of racist, misogynyst and homophobe that twitter was open for business.

so again, and you mentioned something, doug, i mean, a tweet may not necessarily say go to the synagogue, you know, and blow it up, but just the idea of, you know, saying that black people or whatever you say about the negative vitriol that you see about black people, gay men, jewish people, i mean, it gets people to, some people, to go and act on that. not necessarily a direct order, but just the hate speech in and of itself, it creates an environment that people kind of get riled up, and hen they go out and do something really bad. >> yeah. the point i was trying to make which is that in addition to just something overt like go do violence at a particular location, absolutely, you know, certain words could end up inciting. and it's a tricky continue women from overtly encouraging -- continue women. continuum. it doesn't have to be 100% overt, i agree with you, arthel.

arthel: all right. doug, i want to end on a happy note, and i want to tell you, please tell ms. scalise, your mom, i said hello. she's9 90 years old now, right? >> she's a big fan of yours, and she watches you all the time, and she is9 -- 90. and she's going to kill us for saying that. arthel: miss felice, you look great. doug burns, thank you. >> my pleasure, thank you. eric: happy birthday, of course. thank you, doug and thank you, arthel. los angeles county officials are sounding the alarm over the rising number of covid cases and hospitalizations in l.a. officials are warning that if the trend will continues, they could consider bringing back indoor mask mandates just in time for the christmas gatherings. you know, folks are concerned that people, some just aren't taking the continued covid situation seriously enough. charles watson is in atlanta, home of the centers for disease control, the cdc, with the latest on this.

hi, charles. >> reporter: hey, eric. look, yeah, l.a.'s county department of public health has not definitively said that a mask mandate will be restored, but it is seeing troubling numbers that could the lead public health officials many that direction, and this is what they're talking about. take a look at this. l.a. county currently averaging more than 3,000 daily new covid infections, that is a 44% increase from the week prior and more than three times the cases the county was recording at the beginning of november. with with those numbers public health officials say l.a. county is currently in the medium transition area, and if those numbers continue, they do expect the county will reach high transmission by late next week. case counts are not the only metric that officials are looking at. -- looking at. they're also keeping a close eye on covid hospital admissions and bed capacity which according to the cdc needs to reach about 15% capacity before an area is

considered as having high transmission. take a listen. >> health care system is not necessarily stressed when we just see a lot of admissions. so that percent of beds occupied with covid is actually significant, and we'd need to see them reach both of those. metrics in order to go ahead and ask people to do universal indoor masking. >> reporter: yeah. so if hay get to a point where a universal mask mandate is put back in place, that would mean residents, folks who live in l.a. county would have to return to wearing masks in restaurants, gyms, grocery stores, for example. now, whether or not people or cities within l.a. county would follow such guy dance is another big question. when the county tried to reinstate a mask mandate in the summer, long beach, pasadena and beverly hills said they would not comply, and that could be the case now as more and more people try to move on from the

pandemic. and, look, with rsv and flu going around, l. l.a. county officials are really trying to make sure that their hospitals are not overwhelmed with covid cases. look, eric, this case rise that you're seeing right now happened after thanksgiving and could be something that they're dealing with for quite a while considering christmas gatherings will take place in a few weeks and, of course, new year's, eric? eric: covid is still with us. charles watson in atlanta, thanks. arthel? arthel: we're going to stay california where the nation's top national security leaders are gathering at the ronald reagan library to discuss challenges here at home and abroad. the ongoing war in ukraine and america's military capability are just some of the issues on the agenda. national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live in simi valley, california, with the very latest. hi, jen. >> reporter: hi, arthel. well, the discussions here this morning have focused not only on the war in ukraine, or but how it relates to deterring china in

taiwan. it's focused on military readinesses, supply chain issues and all of how it impacts on national security. here's defense secretary lloyd austin just moments ago giving the keynote luncheon address. >> our job is simple, we don't lose focus because of polls or politics. the u.s. military is here to fight and win our nation's wars. and we will always work to deter conflict whenever we can, but if we are forced to defend ourselves, we will win of. >> reporter: ronald ray ban's peace through strength -- ronald reagan's peace through strength message looms large over this bath -- gathering. the war in ukraine and why it is important that ukraine win and russia lose loomed large in discussions hear today. a strong majority of americans support providing aid to ukraine according to the reagan national defen survey released here. -- defense survey released here. >> and a member of the u.n.

security council -- let me say that again -- a member of the u.n. security council is waging war to deny democracy to more than 43 million people. russian attacks have left children dead, schools shattered and hospitals smash.. -- smashed. >> reporter: and, of course, there's a lot of talk about how to deer the china in taiwan. defense secretary austin also addressed the national security implications of the divisions here at home. >> i learned that the source of our strength isn't just our weapons, it's our democracy. and that democracy demands something of us all. it's time to ask ourselves what each of us will do to help shape this rare moment in the course of human events.

>> reporter: next up is the director of national intelligence, avril haines, she's speaking now in the forum behind me. back to you with, arthel. arthel: and, jennifer, i'm sure they were happy to have you moderate one of those panels. i know you did a great job. jennifer griffin there in simi valley, california. thanks, jen. and, by the way, we're going to have much more on keeping america safe with republican congressman ron whitman from virginia on the pentagon's next generation of stealth bombers. that's going to come up in just a bit. eastbound. eric: eric yeah. any expert can moderate a panel, it's our jen griffin. the high stakes senate runoff in georgia has been shattering early voting records. with that -- will that help senator warnock or challenger walker? we'll take you live to the campaign trail straight ahead.

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eric: well, election day is tuesday in georgia, and we will soon find out how much of a majority the democrats will have in the u.s. senate. democratic incumbent senator raphael warnock and republican candidate herschel walker, they're spending the last weekend on the campaign trail trying to get out the vote as one million georgia residents have already cast their ballots. aishah hasnie is following this

race closely, she's in atlanta. >> reporter: hi there, eric. from atlanta, georgia, where it has been raining pretty much all day. look, this is setting up to be a very tight race much like the general election with no clear front-runner in any of the most recent polling which means that both of these candidates are out there, they're stomping the ground, and they're trying to get out every single vote iser they can find. take a look, this was senator warnock at an earlier event today with the afl-cio. and he holds a very narrow 4-point lead over his opponent, herschel walker. noticeably missing from the campaign trail, eric, is president biden. now, biden hasn't announced a visit to georgia to campaign for warnock yet. instead, he was up in boston, massachusetts, yesterday helping to fundraise for the candidate. now, the white house says the president's message resonates with voters no matter where he

is in the country. i got to ask the incoming president of the georgia afl-cio if she wants the president in georgia in these final days especially after he was the one who asked congress to intervene in a rail worker union talks just this week. >> i think that we've done a good job of the surrogates that have been here in georgia that we don't -- that's not necessary at this point. he's being very supportive up in d.c., and we, we're good. >> 1200 miles away in boston. >> and 1200 miles away in boston, but the message has been sent. and right now the senator needs to be knocking on doors instead of waiting on presidents to come. >> reporter: now, herschel walker is also not waiting on a president to come. former president trump will hold a telerally with the candidate. sources tell fox digital he will not be in the state in person as both sides understand appearance

might be politically risky. and remember, eric, about 2 the 00,000 voters -- 200,000 skipped their tickets last month, it was a big story here, voting for the governor, brian kemp, who of course has clashed with trump and not voting for walker: right now for especially the walker example, it's about getting everyone they can out to vote on tuesday. eastbound? eric: all right, we'll see what happens. arthel? arthel: well, democrats are on track to shake up the presidential nomination process. rulemaking arm of the democratic national committee voting to strip iowa of its first in the nation caucus status. south carolina would become the first primary state starting in 2024 if the full dnc approves the move. lucas tomlinson is live at the white house with more on this. lucas. >> reporter: recall as a presidential candidate in 2020 president biden finished fourth iowa i caucuses, pete buttigieg

was the winner. it wasn't until biden went to south carolina before he won a primary, and perhaps that's the reason for big change. let's take a look at the new batting order, south carolina leading off on february 3rd in 2024, doesn't seem that far away, does it? new hampshire and nevada on february 6th, georgia on february 13th and michigan on pen 27th. here at the white house it was president biden touting the latest jobs numbers, 263,000 jobs added last month which beat expectations. >> we've now created 10.5 million jobs since i took office, more than any administration in history at point many our presidency. -- in our presidency. for months you couldn't look anywhere without headlines screaming gas prices at the pump are up. but look, folks, gas prices are down, and you barely hear anything about it right now. >> reporter: during the pandemic the u.s. economy lost 25 million jobs. a little context there for the president's numbers.

also, gas prices remain more than 40% higher than the day when biden took office. some other troubling data, arthel, more americans are leaving the work force for a third straight months. the retail sector lost 30,000 jobs, that's not good with christmas coming up. the personal savings rate is at the lowest level in over 15 years. long-term up employment also continues to inch higher. some experts think it could take a decade for inflation to return to normal. >> historically, once inflation is above 5%, take 10 years to get back under 2%. so unless spending stops in washington, see no long-term solution to inflation that's infecting the whole economy. >> reporter: and the chairman of the federal reserve says he could be hiking interest rates even more in the coming months to get inflation under control, arthel. arthel: so so tough on so many families. lucas tomlinson, thank you. eric? eastbound the u.s. unveiling the first few stealth bomber in three decades. it's meant to counter rising

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eric: the u.s. military unveiling its new air force b-21 raider in california. a new bomber. it's made by northrop grumman. the company says the nuclear stealth bomber is extremely advanced with the very latest technology. the air force plans to build 100 of them, and they say, get this, it could be flown with or without a human crew. >> the b-21 raider is the first strategic bomber in more than three decades. fifty years of advances in low observable technology have gone into this aircraft. and even the most sophisticated air defense systems will struggle to detect the b-21 in

the sky. eric: for more, we're joined from the reagan national defense forum in simi valley, california, by virginia republican congressman rob whitman who's a member of the house armed services committee. congressman, welcome to fox news afternoon. >> good afternoon, everything. great to be with you -- eric. eric: man, oh, man, the way they had the blue lights on it, it scares the bejesus out of you, especially when you find out it's got all this new technology. why is this advanced bomber is so special many -- specialsome. >> eric, i have watched this bomber from the day it started on a blank sheet of paper to today when the first aircraft rolls out for unveiling. it is an incredible aircraft. the technology in this aircraft is unparalleled. whatting do is -- what it can cois the most advanced operational warfare platform ever, ever in the history of man kind. it's mind-boggling, the things that it'll do, much of it

classified. but it does create a significant risk to the chinese. it helps us surpass what has been a strategy isic advantage for the chinese in that particular realm. letses us not only catch up, but sur surpass them. a great day for the united states air force, a great day for our strategic capability and the ability to deter china. china's going to have to think twice before they do anything because at the secretary of defense said, this bomber has capabilities unseen ever in the history of man kind. eric: we're looking at it with you right now, the cockpit is lit up. it looks very formidable. why, you talk about chinese, was it developed specifically in a sense to try and confront the threats that beijing has been growing? >> it is. it's there to counter the answet the chinese have to sense aircraft coming into their air space. it is able to go into those areas as the secretary of

defense said in a very, very low observable level, almost undetectable. that creates a big problem for the chinese to determine what might be in their air space. and then the weapons that that platform can carry, and also it can be manned or unmanned. a whole variety of threats that poses to china that have never been at their doorstep, and the united states has the ability to provide that threat the scenario. eric: it could be unmanned and flown like a big, threatening drone, so to speak. >> yes. eric: how do you think beijing will respond? are they sitting in beijing, you know, on their backsides thinking, oh, man, we better think twice? >> well, listen, let's not underestimate the chinese. they will try in every way he can to counteract particular air a craft. but i would argue the things that are built into this aircraft will be very, very difficult for them to counter. so what we have to do is to use

that advantage and continue to build on it and make sure too that we understand that the chinese will do everything they can to try to discover more about this aircraft. we know what the chinese will do, hay will try to break into our systems to discover, essentially, the secret ises of this aircraft. secrets. we have gone to extraordinary levels to make sure the elements of technology in this aircraft are protected and to make sure that the chinese never find out about it. when we do that, we can maintain that advantage, i believe, for years to come. eric: and finally,man, or it's not lost to me, the name that's been chosen, the raider. is that a tribute to jimmy doolittle? general doolittle and his famous raid in 1942 off the aircraft carriers in which we were able to bomb tokyo. it shocked the japanese that we could reach tokyo. what is the significance, do you think, on that? the b-25 that flew off that aircraft carrier, you know, they had to lose the planes, they

kept flying in order to get that done, and that was a strategic victory for the united states in the early days of world war ii against the japanese. finish. >> eric, it was. and what amendment concern a great parallel. this b-21 raider brings exactly the same capability, to reach into critical areas merchandise china just as jimmy doolittle and the raiders running those aircraft were able to reach japan. remember, japan didn't think that could happen. they were very surprised when hay had u.s. bombers drop bombs on their country. the same thing with the chinese. i think hay will be very surprised by the capability and the threats that aircraft can pose to the chinese, very very much like jimmy doolittle and his brave raiders did back in world war ii. eric: the spirit of jimmy doolittle and all those ally pilots stay with us. it's in the b-21, as the son of a b-24 pilot, i say that a with pride.

[laughter] congressman rob whitman, good to see you. thank you for joining us. >> eric, great to see you. eric: arthel? arthel: well, tensions are high in kyiv as ukraine's capital city braces for more strikes by russian forces. plus, new details of a number of ukrainian casualties. that that's live from kyiv up next. ♪ ♪ better luck next time. who said that? i did. but i haven't even thrown yet. you threw good money away when you bought those glasses. next time, go to america's best - where two pairs and a free exam start at just $79.95. it's a quality exam worth 59 bucks. can't beat that. can't beat this, either. alright, i'll give you that one. ... and, apparently, that one. two pairs and a free exam starting at just $79.95. book an exam today at americasbest.com somebody sign this kid!

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♪ eric: overnight in kyiv now where the people of that city are watching and waiting, bracing for more potential attacks by russian forces. this as ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is calling for restrictions on religious organizations that have ties to moscow, putting pressure on the ukrainian branch of the orthodox church which is led by a close ally of vladimir putin. jeff paul now tonight in the ukrainian capital with the very latest on all that. hi, jeff. >> reporter: yeah, eric, a lot

of anxiety here within kyiv because it's been more than a week since the last strike happened in this region, and a lot of folks who call the capital city home are sort of waiting and watching to see if and when the next attack by russian forces could happen. but beyond the kyiv region, fighting is still very intense particularly out east. that's where troops right now are focused many a town in the doe necessarying region. pro-russian forces are trying to surround the town and capture it. some western security agencies downplayed the strategic importance of it. if or to the fall, it could enable russian forces to strike bigger cities just to the north. president zelenskyy addressed that a current situation, praising his troops on front line. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: in the region now as before, it's the most painful situation. we do everything to help our men there. everyone there deserves the

deepest gratitude. >> reporter: the mayor here in kyiv is urging folks who live in and around this region to sock up on water, to stock up on food because if there were to be another strike and it was targeted on the civilian infrastructure including some of these power stations, it would be really harold to bear these freezing temperatures that we're currently experiencing here in kyiv. eric? eric: the ukrainian people are tough, and they are fighting back. jeff, or thank you. arthel? arthel: everything, meantime, president biden said earlier week that he would be willing to talk to vladimir putin about ending his war on ukraine with conditions, but the white house is now throw thing cold wate that idea. >> he was very clear yesterday. he's got no intentions to talk to mr. putin right now. as he also said, putin has shown absolutely no inically mission to be interested in die progress of -- dialogue of any kind. in fact, quite the contrary.

everything he's doing shows that mr. putin is interested in continuing this illegal, unprovoked war. arthel: rebecca deler is here, she's -- deler is sheer, a former a former intelligence agency officer, and she joins us now. so, rebecca, should president biden talk to putin? >> he absolutely must audiocassette with putin -- talk with putin because this war needs to end. it's not a winnable war, unfortunately. putin is just distracting the white house. putin is really not interested in caving -- can caving in because he peels strong right now. it's my intelligence assessment that putin is simply trying to engage us in negotiations in order to buy some time so that he can rest his forces and hen renew his operations.

arkansas. arthel: so then why should president biden talk to him then? because that's going give him what he wants, which is to buy time. >> well, he needs to talk to him from the position of strength, but first he needs to speak with president zelenskyy and understand how we settle this war. because at this point we have 100,000 russians either killed or wounded but also, most importantly, the same number of ukrainians as the president of european commission just acknowledged. plus 40,000 civilians. finish and this, putin is not planning to enthis war. but the settlement needs to be achieved at this point. and this is why as the president of the prix world he needs to put pressure on he zen -- zelenskyy to come up with realistic war gains, and right now they're unrealistic.

arthel: it sounds like you're suggesting that president biden should speak to president zelenskyy and for president certificate hen sky to come up with some sort of a -- zelenskyy to come up with some sort of a compromise on a war that he didn't even start. >> it is true. no, zelenskyy did not start this war. putin did. putin is waging a brutal war. but unfortunately, what happened in the leadup to war, arthel, is that the united states has decreased its force posture in previous years. i personally briefed nato and several combatant commands in the runup to putin's invasion of crimea. we knew that putin is going to wage this brutal war including targeting civilians. there's a special operations called strategic operations to defeat critical infrastructure of the adversary. ukrainians are now without heat,

without water, and 80% of ukraine is plunged into darkness. they're trying to restore the electricity, but it's proven very difficult. so knowing all this, nobody wanted to do anything about it. only eight nato countries are contributing now into the collective defense kitty. and so we didn't take our opportunity to develop a counterstrategy, and this is why right now we're not in a very strong negotiating position. and we're depleting our own weapons supplies. we have now spent on some missile systems 13 years' worth of spries, and this is why -- supplies, and this is why i believe it would be smart to settle the conflict before more ukrainians are killed arkansas arkansas so as you're saying, i've got to run, i'm running out of time here, but what you're saying is so fascinating, that basically president biden has to put pressure on president

zelenskyy to settle the score, compromise, stop the killing, stop the shedding, the blood she would and everything else. you know what, rebecca, i have to go now, because i'm going to hit a hard out, but can you come back real soon to continue this conversation? it's very important and very timely. thank you very much for joining us today. >> it would be my honor, arthel. arthel: thank you. we'll be right back. thank you, rebecca. thank you.

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eric: amazing at the world cup but team usa fans now suffering heartbreak. the u.s. men's team heading home after they were defeated by the netherlands in the round of 16 of the world cup today. win or go home and sadly they are going home but man oh man what a run it has been. alex hogan in qatar. what happened? >> the u.s. came back for half time, fired up, they were heated and ready to go but they managed to score once but it wasn't enough. they will pack their bags and head home but you have to imagine it's quite the warm welcome making it to the knockout round. >> when youty about how they have come together, it's really special, you don't often get a bond like that between the

teammates and the staff and inch. so really proud of this group. alex: really proud of this group is what we heard over and over not only from the coach but as many americans celebrating this u.s. time here at the world cup in doha. they say they are looking forward towards the next world cup which will be hosted in the u.s. with partnership with canada and mexico. eric: they have so much to be proud of. what a team. alex hogan live in dohah. you have to think the american spirit out there on the pitch for our country just wonderful. arthel: it is wonderful. back tomorrow at noon eastern. the saturday joe up next.

>> hi, everyone, i'm tammy bruce along with nicole saphier, griff jenkens welcome to the big saturday joe. >> elon says let that sink in and the mainstream media' reaction is priceless. >> covid protestors in china trying to make their voices heard but apple of all people tried