all the time. he is optimistic and, you know, i think optimism is very important to this president. but at the same time, he's going to continue to ask congress to act and he's going to continue to see what other executive actions can be taken from here but at the end of the day we need congress to act, we need legislation that can be signed into law to deal with a matter that is really tearing apart communities. >> was the white house aware before this afternoon that classified documents had been found at vice president pence's residence as well? >> i would refer you to the white house counsel's office. >> does the white house believe other high office holders should check their personal residences out of abundance of caution to make sure they are not holding on to classified documents as well. >> that's not something i can comment from here. i don't know the, you know, the

reasoning of what the news that we heard about pence, so i'm just not going to comment from here. i'm not going to comment on any other former elected official, current elected official, i refer you to the department of justice, anything that relates to this white house, i would refer you to the office. >> the abrams tank, john kirby says it's expensive to maintain, operate, fuel, and requires a lot of training. does this white house still have those same concerns when it comes to providing tanks to the ukrainians? >> as my dod colleagues have said very recently that again, nothing to preview from here, certainly don't have anything to share, but they never ruled out tanks, just want to make that very clear. i think what my colleagues at the dod have said in the past and recently is that there were always challenges with tanks, but not going to preview

anything. i think i would refer you to the dod comments on this. always been challenges, never been taken off the table. i don't have anything to preview. >> those are the challenges, what are the benefits to the potential of supplying the tanks? >> nothing to preview, be very clear here. we have always said we are in constant communication with ukraine as they are trying to figure out what they need on the battlefield and we are always looking for ways to offer security assistance for them, and so again, not going to get ahead of any potential announcement, i don't have anything for you to preview, but we are always in constant communication with ukraine and what it is that they need for their success what it is they need to really battle the aggression we have seen from russia this almost past year. >> germany has decided to send leopard tanks to ukraine, do you have any comment on that, and is

that linked in any way reversal consideration of the u.s. government sending abrams to ukraine as well? >> we have said this before. we believe it's up to each individual country. it is their own sovereign decisions on what they provide for ukraine. we have been very clear about that and we always appreciate what our allies and partners are doing to make sure that ukraine is able to defend itself. i'm not going to go beyond that. don't have anything to preview from here. >> on ticketmaster, there was a hearing in the senate today. given the white house's concern about monopoly power, does the white house believe the live nation ticketmaster merger should be unwound, given what we have heard today from senators expressing that concern. >> are you a swiftie, is that what it's called? [laughter] >> things that you learn. so -- look, president biden is a

strong proponent of increasing competition in our economy. as he said last year when he signed a landmark executive order on competition, and i quote, the heart of american capitalism is a simple idea. open and fair competition, but capitalism without competition is not capitalism, it's exploitation. so i'll say one more thing about the order, a whole of government effort to promote competition in an american economy. we know the lack of competition leads to higher prices and more service. so again, capitalism without competition isn't capitalism, it's exploitation, and he's made an effort with his executive actions to deal with something that truly matters to the american people. >> does the same concern apply to google, facing new dod action today? >> look, i'm not going to get into dod action or what dod is potentially -- any legal matters

they are taking. what i will say more prodly, how the president is a proponent for increasing competition in our economy and has shown that through his actions. >> on gun violence, you've mentioned the potential for further executive action. is there an active review underway of other potential executive actions? where is this being worked on in the administration? >> so, don't have anything to share on any active review. what i can say is the president has asked his team to do all they can through executive action to reduce gun violence. we have seen him make his historic progress via executive action to deal with this dangerous violence that we are seeing, gun violence specifically that we are seeing across the country and dangerous hands. so we'll continue to pursue executive actions to reduce gun violence, i don't have anything to share or preview or list out what we are looking at but his team is always looking at ways to improve, to deal with an issue, again, that is devastating communities across

the country. i also want to be very, very clear here. in order to deal with this, we need congress to act, and that's the way that we are really going to be able to deal with a matter that is, again, devastating communities, defer stating families across the country. >> on documents, i realize you don't want to comment on existing issues but there is clearly an ongoing issue across administrations with handling of classified materials. perhaps this is not the right time for this white house to lead a review of u.s. policy on classified materials but is that something that the white house is considering? is there someone who would be the right person to lead a review of the current challenges that are obviously tripping up people from all parties? >> understand the question and i know it's going to come in many different ways, i'm going to refer you to the white house

counsel's office who would be the best -- they would be the best folks to talk through about that. >> thank you, karine. i want to put up on the screen, administration has been -- [inaudible] forming alliances not just in europe about in asia as well, austrailia, new zealand and japan. again, imposing economic sanction, is the white house satisfied with the [inaudible] that these countries are giving? i know you say sovereign state and they can decide for themselves. at this point as we are approaching the one year anniversary, are you satisfied with what you ask from alliances to give to the military? >> we have been appreciative of allies and partners in their efforts to help ukraine and what they have decided their security assistance is going to be for ukraine. and so we will continue to be

appreciative, continue to thank them. again, you said it in your question to me, it is a sovereign decision, up to each individual country to decide. how are they going to do their part in helping ukraine fight against russia aggression. but you know, these are our allies, these are our partners, and we will continue to work with them closely to make sure that ukrainians are able to fight this brutal war. >> alliances are they still holding? >> we believe they are. i'm going to come back, steve. >> it being the white house position the last several weeks the president's legal team did the right thing, is it the initial observation the white house that the pence legal team did the right thing? >> it's not for me to comment on here. i would refer you to the department of justice. >> one of the things the pence team seems to have done in the last week, make public disclosure of the circumstance, advise nara and congress and now

the public. any reflections how the pence team handled it -- >> steve, i understand your question and i hear it. we have answered your question in many different variations. i don't have anything else to share from here. if you have my more specifics or details about this, about the ongoing legal matter i would refer you to department of justice. anything else, refer you to the white house counsel's office. >> knew about it two months -- >> does the white house have a response to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu surprise trip to jordan and do you think it could help reduce tensions in the region? >> i have not seen the reports or talked to the national security counsel about it, but you know jake sullivan went to israel to meet with his counterparts. we normally don't comment on

individual countries meeting and the agenda with other countries but don't have anything specific to share on that. >> say anything more about what's on the agenda today for the meeting at 3:00 with the democratic leadership? >> as you know, the president is very much looking forward to meeting with the new democratic leadership and happening pretty soon, less than an hour, and so he's going to host them in the roosevelt room. you are going to hear from him at the top, something to share about his thoughts about the meeting. they'll cover a wide range of issues, especially how we can make even more economic progress on top of what our shared accomplishments have led to, the creation of over 10.7 million new jobs and 10 million small business starts, bringing down inflation, and a record number of americans enrolling in healthcare coverage. one of the main avenues for doing that, legislation they have done together and we think

with the inflation reduction act, bipartisan infrastructure legislation, that's what one of the topics that is certainly will come up. and look, the president has said this, he said this after the midterm elections, said it many times, i've said this. he is looking forward to working with republicans in good faith to continue the work that he has been able to do the last two years, some in a bipartisan way, to deliver for the american . but look, he's also going to call out and we have said this before, continue t dangerous extreme maga republicans, he can do both. like proposals to raise taxes on the middle class or cut medicare, cut social security as we have been hearing from national republicans and also, let's not forget, the national abortion ban or worsening inflation and those are the things the president is very focused on and i think the most important thing i think you can take away from this is he wants to continue to deliver for the

american people. he's willing to do that in a bipartisan way but has to be in good faith. >> one of my questions about the preview. one of the things i wonder, if the president has received some democratic criticism about how he has handled some of the things that he has said about the documents. do you expect he might address that with the democratic leaders because it's obviously got political implications for just how he's perceived and perhaps some of his political strength going forward. >> i kind of talked about this a little bit kelly yesterday, and some of those same criticism from democratss, they also said the president, they believe the president did what he needed to do and handled, has handled it fully, and in a cooperative way. but look, you know, as it relates to the politics of this, it's up to the american people to decide. they, you know, they are smart,

they know what's going on. they know what this president has been doing and delivering on. you know, we have talked about the midterms and what was supposed to be and predicted to be and it didn't happen. when you think about the red wave that we had heard over and over again and part of that, why we didn't see that is because the president led with a message that resonated and connected with the american people. he led with what he has been able to do. the when it comes to the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, making sure he's doing the work to lower cost at the gas pump which he has been able to do. and so look, we will let the american people see for themselves what the president has been able to deliver the last two years. i'm just not going to get into any further discussion about that from here. >> do you know if he has been briefed on the pence matter and has he had any outreach with former president obama since some of documents were from their joint administration. >> i would refer you to the white house counsel's office.

>> thanks, karine. after a special counsel was named before the fbi searched, president biden went to his house in wilmington. what was he doing there? >> i would refer you to the white house counsel. >> something relating to this case? >> i would refer you to the white house counsel's office. >> do you think the story was leaked by someone trying to bruise the president politically ahead of a re-election announcement? >> i would refer you to the white house counsel's office, they have been closely involved. >> more basically, we know the president did. why did he do it? >> i would refer you to the white house counsel's office. >> the president's own words he admits to having information that wasn't his. why did he smuggle it out? >> i will let -- the statement of the president stands for itself. i'm not going to go into down a rabbit hole. >> why did he not tell you about

it? >> the u.n. envoy to haiti. >> sandra: just responding to what you saw the exchange with peter doocy and the constant referral to the white house counsel office, john, jonathan turley just tweeted, refusal of karine jean-pierre to not answer questions on the documents, lacks legal rationale. she refused to answer. whether the administration thinks other officials should take care with classified documents. he goes on, serious threat referencing a serious situation we have seen play out at the white house for many days now and the lack of answering any questions or providing any new information on this growing scandal. also by the way noting this is taking place with the backdrop of former vice president mike pence just revealing that

classified documents were found at his home in indiana. so this is a story that continues, nothing new from the white house. >> john: thank goodness jonathan turley is not dunking on golden retriever puppies again today. juan williams and david avella are still with us in the studio in washington, d.c. and there was a complete lack of decipherable information out of the briefing. >> absolutely, and continues to be this administration. now they will say nothing and hope that information continues to come out that other government officials also mishandled documents so they can say see, everybody has done this. who would have thought it was hillary clinton that taught us a lesson many years ago with her server that government officials don't always take good care of documents. if this administration were smart, they would come out and say the steps we are taking

proactively to make sure important documents, classified or not, important documents that government officials have access to and staff have access to are kept secure so they don't get in the wrong hands. >> sandra: so juan, sort of going through turley's reaction, we are going to try to get his reaction specifically to pence's document reveal as well. he goes on to say moreover, white house counsel, accused of drafting the original misleading statement to the press does not represent the president as a person as opposed to the presidency. the white house is maintaining the position the president can make public statements as the president but not address what he meant in those comments. why do you think this white house continues to refuse to go any further in the explanation of what was found, when it was found, why they were looking for it. >> it's an ongoing investigation and they don't want to step in a hole with the justice department. their whole position is that

they are cooperating with the justice department and they do that, by the way, to provide a strong contrast to president trump who they made the case did not cooperate, either with the national archives or with the justice department once the justice department pursued those documents. >> sandra: i'm sorry to interrupt you, but turley's point, she just refused to answer whether the administration thinks other former elect officials should take care in checking for classified documents and would not respond to that. why can she not respond to that. >> ongoing investigation. >> sandra: it's not a question regarding an investigation. >> yes, it is. the president of the united states is potentially at legal risk for having had classified documents intentionally or unintentionally in his possession. so i think they are saying listen, we are trying to be transparent with the justice department.

we are not making statements from the white house podium by theory about who should investigate and who should not and who has been found. they want to make sure that they come out of the woods alive. >> sandra: let me ask you the question. should former elected officials take care in checking for classified documents, juan? >> obviously. >> john: this is not like a legal opinion this is a policy thing, david, do you think it should be good policy to check to see whether they have classified documents, simple yes or no. >> simple terms a c student from shepard university would understand, my alma mater. should you follow the law or not follow the law? that is a question any american should be able to answer whether you are under investigation or not. yes, you should follow the law. >> the contrary point, though, is that what if you've done so inadvertently. that's president biden's position. i don't think president trump -- but what if you say yes, some

things got misfiled and we have now found them. it's not a matter of intentionally violating the law. >> john: point something out. >> that wasn't the question. the question was should people follow the law. >> john: point something out, apparently inadvertent, using the white house's language, that it came out with first, that vice president pence ended up with some classified documents. we just got three pages of letters here from the vice president's representative telling us what went on. these are letters that were sent to the national archives. but they have shared with us exactly what went on. we have not seen that from the white house. >> well again, i think the white house -- >> john: the white house has not told us how this happened. >> what do you mean? oh, they have not indicated. >> john: they said it was inadvertent, not why we started looking for these things, who potentially put them there, what they were sitting in, i mean -- stone walled us on literally everything.

>> i think we know they were clearing boxes out of that biden pen center. >> have they told you that? >> i read it in the newspaper. no secret. white house lawyer who was in fact searching through these documents and then alerted the national archives. so they have told us that. >> sandra: i think it's a moment that calls for jonathan turley, we have called him up, he's joining us on the phone. clearly to anybody following your twitter feed you listened to the white house press briefing, jump into the situation sir. >> i'm completely baffled as to what the white house is maintaining as a legal rule here. there is, of course, no legal reason why the white house cannot say officials sh you had make sure they don't have classified documents in their possession. and also referring all questions to the white house counsel has its own problem. they represent the presidency, not the president as an

individual. and these constant references that questions of the most basic type can only be answered by counsel turns the president into a criminal defendant. he has counsel but he's also serving as president. he said he had no regrets, he said that as president of the united states and the white house asked what they meant by that, they said talk to his counsel. he made the statement as a president, not as a criminal defendant. >> john: i was going to say, jonathan, vice president, former vice president pence i think was quite wise in divulging as quickly as he possibly could the existence of the classified documents at his house. but in some way does this potentially give at least a little bit of comfort to the biden administration as it struggles to deal with what is essentially something very

similar to what happened with the other former vice president? >> i think it does. obviously this adds another layer of complication for attorney general garland. and in the end, both spe counsels will report to him. and this is giving him something of an exit ramp. the more violations that are found, the more difficult it may be to just prosecute trump and not look like it's selective prosecution. and so this may be heading to a decision that the attorney general says an on your houses but declines formal prosecution. not necessarily that's going to happen. but the more complex it becomes, the more violations that come forward, i think the less likely you'll have a single prosecution. the alternative is prosecute everyone and let god sort them out. well, that's a lot of people. the list is getting longer. you'll have troubles putting

together a jury pool at this rate. >> sandra: i guess we are left wondering, too, what would the process have been, jonathan, for the former vice president, mike pence, who by the way did say on the record that he -- there were no classified documents at his personal residence. seemed to be insistent on that. how would this have all come about that he would have brought in his lawyers to look through his home, turn this all over to the fbi, of course, and now the national archives, with you do you believe that this is now -- that there is multiple leaders in this country are saying come look through my home, through my documents, make sure i'm in the clear? what's happening here? >> well, i do think that there are a lot of people going through their sock drawers right now. you know, the fact is, this is a city awash with classified documents. and there is also problem of overclassification. but when you have people like

vice president pence, president biden, former president trump, who are saturated with classified material, it is easy to have these types of violation. what's curious about these different cases is that, you know, with trump he's not denying he took the material, he said i wanted the material, i have a right to have them. biden is saying i don't have any idea how these documents ended up at my home. and that becomes more difficult as you find more documents in more spots that president biden has worked in or lived in. >> john: particularly the one document found in the library, as harris falkner has observed might mean somebody took it out of a collection of other documents to read it, potentially use it for something and did that person then in fact know that it was there. i spoke with a representative close to former vice president mike pence and asked why didn't he bother to look for documents when the whole scandal hit with

mar-a-lago, and the representative said that was an argument over whether or not trump was fully forthcoming and whether or not he had or in his possession classified documents, and so the former vice president did not think to do it. when these documents showed up in places like offices and garages and whatnot boxed up with other stuff he thought oh, maybe we should have a look too, and i think it was quite surprised to find there were some classified documents in there. and president biden maintained he was. >> on the record, your very intelligent golden retriever would have looked for all of them. >> john: i want to try to teach my dog how to get me a beer out of the fridge. i think we could pass on the classified documents. thanks, jonathan. >> sandra: that dog would be getting me the beer now that you owe me from yesterday, by the way. jonathan turley, thanks for jumping on the phone, appreciate it. thank you. all right. today marks 11 months since vladimir putin invaded ukraine and launched a brutal war this time last year our military

leaders predicted the capital of kyiv would fall within days if putin invaded but the city and country are still standing today as they fight back against russia's brutal war machine. >> john: the u.s. is sending billions in aid, but the pressure is building to send maine battle tanks. lindsey graham after a trip to ukraine. >> we are convinced, the three of us, the ukrainians need heavy tanks. best is the german leopard tank, american tanks can be helpful in this regard. if we send some abrams tanks, it will open the floodgates to more tanks coming from allies. what we are urging is to lead by example. >> sandra: fox is reporting the u.s. could announce the delivery of a significant number of tanks as early as this week. pentagon officials at a briefing just last hour say no

announcement at this time. >> john: alex hogan is live in the capital of kyiv and alex, looks like at the very least ukraine will get leopard tanks from poland and could in fact get some american abrams tanks at some point in the future. >> that's right, john and sandra. we heard it in the briefing, the white house not confirming it will send the tanks but also not denying it. huge implications here in ukraine and could encourage and incentivize germany, and now a german news outlet is claiming germany will send in the leopard tanks, something the defense minister said could happen some time soon. a u.s. official is telling fox news the decision to send abrams tanks could happen as early as this week and germany said it received poland's official request to sends in the german made tanks. one of the areas that needs the

tanks the most is bakmoot, and residents are suffering the long lasting effects of the war. we joined the non-profit gem just east of kharkiv. >> i try to imagine my hometown back in michigan and what i had to live with, it's traumatic. it's very difficult and yeah, it is sadly being normalized. heard all the time the russians are only targeting military and every village we have gone to it's so obvious that's so far from the truth. >> entire towns flattened. this is about six kilometer from the front line, and little towns like this, small villages have been completely destroyed. take a look at this building. this was once a kindergarten. >> meanwhile, back here in the capital, several top members of staff in the administration have walked off the job today amid a corruption allegation scandal.

kyiv says it is pledging anti-corruption reform. it's also dismissed at least two dozen of these top officials. john, sandra. >> john: alex hogan in kyiv, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: ian bremer now, president of eurasia group and author of "the power of crisis." ian, marking the occasion looking back and not expected to last this long. nor did anybody predict that ukraine could hang on this long. but are we at a turning point in this brutal war? >> we are escalating, and both sides are, of course, the russians are now targeting civilian critical infrastructure all across the country because they don't have the ability to retake substantial ukrainian land on the ground. meanwhile, nato, having done an enormous amount economically to punish the russians are expanding support militarily for

the ukrainians. and we should remember the things we are talking about, heavy artillery, leopard 2 and maybe even abram heavy tanks as well as the patriot air defense system that we were talking about, of course, over the course of the last several weeks, three months ago, four months ago, if you were talking to nato leaders or american political officials they would have said we don't want to provide those weapons system, too dangerous, too potentially he is ca -- escalatory. it has changed. to ensure the coalition stays together is where we are right now. >> sandra: senator lindsey graham said this in the past couple hours on the brutal war. listen. >> there's no way in hell they are going to quit. they are not going to concede an inch of ukrainian territory to the russians. they will fight to the last person to expell russia from ukraine but we are at an

inflection point now, a tipping point. i'm hoping that germany will understand defeating putin in ukraine is in germany's national security interest. he will keep going if he's not stopped. don't believe me, listen to him. if he gets away with this, world order as we know it becomes a joke. >> sandra: and ian, we also had the opportunity to ask the former secretary of state mike pompeo just last hour about where things go from here. listen. >> we should be doing everything the ukrainians are asking us to do. they have not asked us to send our soldiers, asked for the 82nd airborne, they have simply said provide us the stuff we need and their lives are at risk and the biden administration is afraid to win. they have been afraid to provide the ukrainians with the tools they need to be successful. >> sandra: do you fall into the same category as provide ukraine everything they need to win? >> i think we need to know what win means. from my perspective, provide the ukrainians everything they need

to take back, the territory taken from them since february 24th. i think that is where everyone is right now. i certainly support that. democrats and republicans are far more aligned than the headlines might have you believe. far more aligned in terms of willing to provide the money, far more aligned to provide military support. let's be clear here, nato, before the russian invasion of ukraine, nato looked week, divided. you had the french saying they need to go their own way, some americans saying maybe nato is obsolete, macron said it was brain dead, no one is saying that anymore, and the united states is absolutely leading the charge militarily of all of the nato allies. united kingdom is 2, poland is 3. alliance is holding together and yes, in part because the ukrainians are so incredibly courageous and putting and putting their families, their lives on the line against a much

larger, much wealthier russian army, but a big piece is because the west has been standing tall behind them and together behind them and we should not allow the divisions inside the united states to obscure that reality. it's something we should all be proud of. >> sandra: really interesting perspective. ian bremer watching us on that, and joining us. >> john: fox news alert, attorney general merrick garland moments ago unveiling the antitrust lawsuit against tech giant google accusing them of illegally abusing the dominance in digital advertising. >> allege that google has used anti-competitive, exclusionnary and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish threat over digital technologies, for 15 years, google has pursued a course of

anti-competitive conduct that has allowed it to halt the rise of rival technologies, manipulate, auction mechanics, to insulate against competition and force advertisers and publishers to use its schools. >> john: says because of google's practices, the u.s. has suffered and will attempt to break up the advertising business. we continue to monitor the bhous briefing as it dribbles on. bring in florida republican senator rick scott with more on this. i don't know if you got a chance to see any of the briefing, but there were not a lot of answers forthcoming from the press secretary. this president promised on the 21st of january, 2021, that his would be the most transparent administration in history. yet at least when it comes to this regard the promise does not seem to be living up to the reality. >> absolutely not. we don't know -- i don't know how biden ended up with classified documents from his

time in the senate, i'm in the senate and you go to a classified area, you look at the documents, you go to a classified room and give them back to him. i don't know how he does it and the documents are all marked classified. so, but he ought to be transparent. first off, doj ought to be trans parent. where are they treating biden different than trump. this does not make any sense. everybody -- everybody should follow the law, nobody is above the law and ought to be transparent with what happened here. >> john: the former vice president mike pence disclosed a small number of classified documents were found in a sealed box in his home in indiana and he has turned those over to the fbi, turning them over to the national archives. that's one location that classified documents were found at his place. with president biden, we have got at least a couple of places where they have been found. different locations within one of those places and they keep coming up with classified documents which has led your

colleague, senator ted cruz from florida, saying the fbi and the doj should search biden's senate records from the university of delaware saying if biden's senate documents include classified documents outside of classified settings, as you pointed out is illegal, how many more classified documents are illegally in his senate papers? given the extent of the squirrelling away of the classified documents, should the justice department and the fbi leave any stone unturned? >> absolutely not. they know there is a problem here, look, if i was biden i would welcome them and i would be transparent about it. say look, i don't want to have classified documents outside a classified setting, and so say yes, i want you to come in, i want you to look and make sure there are none there and whatever i know i'm going to tell you. be honest with the american people. it's not that difficult. >> john: the wall street journal is connecting docugate to the

2024 election, saying the public can see the double standard the white house is indulging to explain away his actions. even if most of the press corps doesn't, the president had better hope that there isn't more there there or he might find his hope for a second term in jeopardy. do you believe it could have political implications for the president? >> absolutely. i think the president needs to explain what he's done. i think justice has to explain why did they raid mar-a-lago and why didn't they raid every place biden has ever been. this doesn't make any sense. they ought to be clear. might be a legitimate reason, tell us why they didn't do it and why they are treating this differently. >> john: let me go to the 2024 election on the senate side. democrats are defending in 20 seats, republicans defending in 11. three democratic seats, arizona, ohio, and west virginia as toss-ups, and another five as

toss-ups. why are you focusing your fire in an attempt to win back control of the senate? >> my focus is going to be, as you know, i'm not running the national republican committee anymore, my focus is my re-election in florida. the biggest thing i'm working on, how do we make sure we get our fiscal house in order. the debt crisis is unbelievable. >> john: your seat up for grabs in 2024 is a lean republican in a state that desantis won in a blowout. you are the only lean republican of the 11 out there. l what are you going to do to improve your standing? >> we had a significant increase of the registered republicans in the state, i'll work hard to get all the votes out, so i'm going to work hard every day to make sure i win, talk to all the voters in florida, let them know what i'm doing.

the last three weeks i've traveled the state and let people know what i'm doing to make washington work. >> john: senator rick scott, thanks for joining us, appreciate it. >> sandra: the trial of pro life activist mark houck begins in philadelphia federal court, accuse of twice assaulting in 2021, he says he was protecting his 12-year-old son from verbal harassment. this case could have national implications, correct? >> sandra, it sure can. a lot of people watching the case. good afternoon to you. lawyers for the pro life activist tell us they feel their client is persecuted and prosecuted what they have been describing as a shoving match dates back to october of 2021 right here in the city of philadelphia. prosecutors saying it differently, they say he shoved

a 72-year-old abortion clinic volunteer outside a planned parenthood, they say he was acting in self-defense and regularly known to have visited the clinic passing out pro life literature. the defense is claiming the feds are trying to make an example of him, ignoring violence against pro life centers also. only our cameras were there this morning as he arrived at the philadelphia courthouse with his wife. two counts of violating the federal face act, freedom of access to clinic entrances. also had a chance to catch up with his legal team before the proceedings began. >> we have a self-defense instruction. mark was defending himself and his son from a very aggressive abortion escort. certainly there was contact but warranted by the situation. >> now, jury selection got underway this morning, we don't think the trial would get underway until tomorrow. it's expected to last through the rest of the week.

we have seen several supporters of mark to show their support. and garland talked about the effort to make sure that there is still going to be access to these abortion clinics or pro life centers throughout the country, in touch with members of congress as well as individual states. so much that has come up ever since the kevin kennedy ruling. as for houck, a lot at stake with the case. if convicted, up to 11 years behind bars, and penalty of $350,000. his lawyers told me they feel confident they are going to win but a lot on the line for their client at the same time. sandra. >> sandra: thank you. >> john: a former self-described tom boy is speaking out against children who might be different

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>> sandra: the fentanyl epidemic

is raging taking lives every single day across the nation, victims are younger and younger. deaths 14 and under are up 1400% since 2015. a toll rising faster than in any other age group. brian llenas is live in new york city with that. bryan. >> luke was just 13 years old when he died from fentanyl poisoning in 2020. his mother says he was a jovial spirit, he had a root canal, and the percocet was counterfeit. >> bought one the night before and survived. his mouth was still hurting the following day and so 10:00 in the morning he bought the second pill and unfortunately it killed him. >> 17-month-old serenity murphy

tragical died after the toddler put tin foil laced with fentanyl into her mother. paramedics came but were too late. >> my heart just dropped as they worked on my granddaughter, and they kept tell me narcan is working, i said can you just keep giving her the narcan, please, just save my baby. >> according to an analysis from a non-profit families against fentanyl in just the last two years, fentanyl deaths quadrupled among infants and children ages 5 to 14. >> fentanyl i knew nothing about. i didn't know how serious fentanyl was 'til after losing my granddaughter. >> had i known about fentanyl luca would have known about fentanyl. i encourage you to have open and

honest conversations with your children about any and all drugs. >> sandra, the families are sharing their pain in an effort to save lives. >> sandra: just heart wrenching, every single story. thank you. >> john: democrats on capitol hill increasingly calling out president biden for mishandling classified documents, including senate minority whip dick durbin who says it's unthinkable for any senator to take classified material out of the capitol, we know what president biden did apparently during his 36-year tenure in that institution. if more democrats turn against the president, will that create an opening for someone to challenge him in 2024? bret baier, so, you know, a little bit of new information developing, a little bit. >> always in your alley, you and sandra get all the breaking news. >> john: that time of day.

the fact that former vice president mike pence discovered some classified documents after earlier saying he would not do such a thing, does that give more political cover to president biden? >> i think so, yeah. i think it makes it increasingly tough for the attorney general going forward with these special counsels to look one way at one and the other way at the other. you know, vice president pence put out a detailed explanation, a quick transition, all this stuff happened, but talking with david muir asks did you take classified documents from the white house. i did not. do you see any reason for anyone to take classified documents from the white house, vice president pence, there would be no reason. so they find these documents and they put out this explainer. but yes, it adds to it. so now we are three out of the four last presidents and vice presidents who have found classified documents. the question is, is the fbi or doj asking former president biden whether he has any

classified documents in his home or in his offices that they should know about. >> john: maybe jimmy carter is looking, i don't know. but with mike pence, it was one box that apparently was taped up. looked like it was either taken out of the office or out of the naval observatory, and just boxed up, taped, sealed, and sent to his house. now, at this point, it's one box. but as we found out with joe biden, it was one box and then it was two and then another and then another traunch of things. the wall street journal is suggesting it could have an effect on biden's 2024 chances in an editorial saying the president had better hope there isn't more there there or might find his hope for a second term in jeopardy. but mike pence is looking at running for president as well, they are both tainted with the idea, oh, we found some classified documents in your possession. >> easy for an opposing candidate in either party to say you know what, let's go with someone who doesn't have classified documents at home and

start there. >> sandra: i wonder if pompeo is checking. >> he might be, he has a new book coming out. so i think it's issue politically in both parties and what it does is kind of white wash this issue for people sitting at home who are not following the nuances every day from 1 to 3 with you all as it breaks, they are saying well, wait a second, everybody does it, so what's the deal. >> john: yeah. and i want to jump ahead to call four number three here, in terms of his chances for the 2024 nominee. emerson college asked american abouts this, should biden be the 2024 democratic nominee or someone else, 58% said yes. 42% said no. he's got the inside track at the moment. in terms of the someone else, who is there who could really challenge him? >> we don't know yet. obviously there are whispers of gavin newsom from california, the governor there, but many others would jump in at the

thought if in fact president biden decides not to run or somehow is wounded by this process. i think there would be a number of democrats who would consider running. >> john: we may find out his intentions after the state of the union address on february 7th. on the republican side, here is what the emerson poll found, may surprise supporters of ron desantis. 55% of republicans said they think the nominee should be former president trump, 29% desantis, 6% for pence, 3% nikki haley, 1% mike pompeo, and a handful of others as well. so far it's advantage trump. the emerson poll found trump loses again to biden, whereas desantis ties him. >> emerson is a respected poll. there are going to be a lot of polls here. i will say those numbers have shifted in recent weeks, in part you see the former president doing what he did at the end of the 2016 campaign, he puts that

little policy announcements from mar-a-lago in a scripted policy kind of sendout, and that as opposed to the daily back and forth does attract people. i will say there is still a large group out there who say love the policies, really love them, not sure about the controversial person, and we'll see if he changes, you know, his tune as he continues campaigning. south carolina is supposed to be the big launch on the 28th. >> john: two years from now we'll be inaugurating the new president. katie bar the door. >> sandra: thank you very much, john. bret appreciate the breaking news during our hour, he gets plenty in the evening as well. this is a story we have been watching for a while. it's a female journalist and she has gone viral with a tweet speaking up for tomboys across the country. she posted this photo to twitter

showing off her childhood style. of course posing with a different kind of hair cut, not girly, bare faced and a big smile, writing "many women are tom boys growing up, this is me at 10 or 11 in the early 90s, and wore masculine clothes to the age of 23. not a single person ever suggested any of these things made me a boy or a man. we have gone backwards." the woman behind the tweet joins us now. nina, we saw your post go viral, it struck a lot of people when you said something that i think many people are thinking in this moment. not taking away from those who are different and go through that transition because they feel they must, but you're taking issue with those girls who grow up tomboys and suddenly people are remaining whether or not they should remain in their

gender? >> right, so i guess i was remembering what it was like not that long ago, 1990s, a living memory for a lot of people and seemed to be a lot less pressure on young boys and girls in terms of their interests and their desires and who they were friends with, like it was much freer, it was before the internet, i suppose, and maybe partly i was mourning that time or remembering it but i think there's so much pressure now on young children and i think a lot of us in the u.k. are very worried that the moment a child becomes unhappy or feels unhappy with his or her body, that there's immediately a kind of rush to somehow diagnose this unhappiness. i think a lot of people are worried about the situation where young children might be put on a particular course either through puberty blockers or through drugs or surgery that doesn't really address the problem and that actually will lead to a lot more harm, a lot

more unhappiness. >> sandra: you got a lot of attention for the tweet. why do you think that is? >> i think because it's a very contentious issue and a lot of time we are looking at the current moment and we forget that there were these other possibilities, and i do still think a lot of children are growing up, you know, with this freedom to express themselves, to go through different phases, and in a way that's what children do, like it should be a matter of indifference at some level. we care very much, we look after children, we love children, we want to protect them, you know, we don't want them to come to harm. but i think adults need to take responsibility. they do know better. children don't have all the truth at their command and they certainly -- it's difficult to think long-term when you are young and i think we are worried that, you know, kids might be pushed or feel peer pressure either from friends or school or the internet into making irreversible decisions that they

will then regret. >> sandra: when i look at that picture, i think it's a cute kid. you were indeed and i think all children are beautiful. but you do raise an incredibly important point. i'll finish off by reading a quote from your piece, the trans war on tomboys you write. children must be allowed to grow up without having their normal behavior pathologized. adults must protect children and teenagers from their own desires and not to imagine their children know best. subject of the photograph may seem boyish, you write, but that person was a girl then, and is a woman now. and this reality is beautiful to me. and you are beautiful, and thank you very much for joining us on that and chiming in on what is a big growing conversation happening in this country and obviously with your point being made in the u.k., it's happening there as well. thank you so much, nina. all right. john, it's a conversation we have had many times on the show and will continue to do so. >> john: and there's a school of

thought a lot of young people go through some form of gender disforeya for a period of time and then over adolescence they work out who it is that they are, and is society pushing too many kids into an irreversible change too quickly. >> sandra: i just may have been a tomboy myself up to a certain age, john. >> john: i know i was. >> sandra: great to have everybody joining us, a lot of news. i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'm john roberts. we'll see you tomorrow. "the story" with martha starts right now. >> martha: good afternoon. i'm martha maccallum in new york city at the fox news headquarters. right now the justice department reportedly considering expanding their search for classified documents to other locations linked to president biden. that could include this beach house that you see on the left-hand side of your screen at rehoboth in delaware. the president was just at that house this past weekend.