>> and i have the original on vhs, i'll never give up. >> i had posters, everything. i mean -- and now, of course, i'm married, that would be awkward. but i'm excited for him. i mean, i hope it wins best picture, i really do, and he should never give an inch. >> i agree. >> thank you for being with us today, secretary. so excited about your book. can't wait to read it. "never give an inch," thanks to everyone, don't forget to dvr the show, and now here is "america reports." >> sandra: thank you, ladies. controversial new gun law in illinois facing serious backlash. critics arguing the sweeping ban goes way too far. and now one sheriff from a county just outside chicago is taking things a step further. >> james mendrick says it violates second amendment rights. we will ask him about the gun law and that democrats' claims

he is enabling mass shooters. >> biden administration has destabilized the southern border. it's a lie when administration officials claim they have operational control over the southern border. mexican drug cartels have control of the southern border. they have allowed it to worsen. they have actually refused to take any action to meaningfully secure our southern border. >> there is a war at our southern border and right now we are losing it. >> sandra: begin "america reports" with slamming biden for surrendering the southern border to the mexican drug cartels. i'm sandra smith in new york. great to have you here, trace. >> trace: they argue biden could have cracked down on the cartels and drug smuggling by putting pressure on mexico's president when they met earlier this month but he failed to do so. >> sandra: those lawmakers also

say open borders have helped turn human trafficking operations into a multi-billion dollar business for the cartels, which has made them even more of a threat. let's get right to it with iowa congresswoman ashley hinson, one of the republicans demanding president biden do more. welcome to you and to the program, we saw you with fellow republican members of congress calling on this administration to do something to stop this. what exactly do you think we can do today to stop these cartels from coming in? >> sandra, thank you for having me on the show today. it's very serious what's happening at our southern border and it's also very clear to all of us that president biden has done everything in his power to cut off our cbp agents and ice agents from being able to do their jobs. what we need to do is cut off the cartels at the knees being able to function. they are a criminal enterprise. more than 250,000 illegal

immigrant encounters in the month of december along. since october, more than 38 people on the terror watch list have been apprehended at the southern border and in january, more than ten sex offenders apprehended. so, those are all sober statistics, very real threats. the real threats are the cartels and the people we don't know about who have made their way across the southern border. so, it is time that we absolutely secure our southern border. we have the tools to do that. and we need to be empowering our brave men and women who are doing everything they can to keep our country safe and protect us from the cartels. >> sandra: and of course, combatting the growing threats of fentanyl in this country. we are just saying far too many stories day after day, heart wrenching stories of young people in this country who are killed by this drug crisis that is happening. the dea drug seizures in 2022 alone, congresswoman, shocking. we have the numbers on the screen. 50.50 million fentanyl, 440,000

pounds of cocaine, 131,000 pounds of methamphetamine. 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, 4300 pounds of heroin. this is killing our young people every single day in this country, congresswoman. how do we stop that? >> absolutely. yeah, and it is terrifying. i have a dad, a constituent in my district who reached out to me and said he's concerned the next pill his son takes will be fentanyl, his son has a drug problem. it's a real threat in our back yards, why a member from iowa cares about what's happening at our southern border, dangerous drugs make their way up interstate 35 like a pipeline into the great state of iowa and are hurting our families and kids. so, controlling the border is absolutely what we need to be doing. we need to devote resources to our cbp agents. we need to be looking at technologies. i was down at the del rio sector a little over a year ago, they told me the cartels are making about $11 billion a week off of

people and off of this misery at our southern border. so it is a criminal enterprise, which means they have the resources to be able to get that technology, buy these weapons and then fight back against our brave men and women. so it means cutting them off at the knees, means actually enforcing the laws at our southern border. meaningfully enforcing remain in mexico. cbp agents have asked us to make title 42 permanent, i'm hopeful we'll be able to do that. before we move forward with immigration reform, we absolutely need to be focused on safety and security at our southern border. >> amazing how you connect the dots for people who think it's just a border state issue when you are telling stories like that father in iowa, fearing that the next pill his son could take could be laced with fentanyl and kill him, that is a fear too many parents have in this country right now. the violence is headline news almost every day, knowing these cartels are infiltrating our country, congresswoman. you led off, i'll ask you, you

led off by saying you believe the biden administration is enabling this. the biden administration says the opposite, the president paid that visit to the border, didn't see much of what we see every single day, and that we report on every single day. a bit of a different scene that he visited. but he says they are on it, he's got a border czar, he says that's kamala harris she is trying to stop the migrants from coming from where they are, multiple countries, he says he's on it. what leads you to believe this is an administration enabling these migrants to continue to flow over in record numbers? >> well, the enabling happens by again meaningfully not enforcing the laws at our southern border and that's why i've called for the resignation of secretary mayorkas, because we have a complete void in leadership at the department of homeland security. if we were enforcing our laws that cuts them off, that cuts off the cartels and makes them less powerful. when the president is meeting with the president of mexico and the plan they are presenting to

the american people is gender, equity, climb-based, and the cartels are laughing at us making billions of dollars. the sobering statistics breaking record after record. iowans are telling me they want it to stop and americans are saying we have had enough as well. so we are leading the charge again to hold this administration account and looking forward to asking them tough questions on this issue. >> sandra: welcome to the program, i believe it's the first time you and i had a chance to speak. thank you for joining us and coming on today. appreciate it. >> thank you, sandra, appreciate you. >> sandra: trace, more on this coming up and obviously this coming off the headline out there in california where we lost that young mother, 16 years old, her 10-month-old baby, her family speaking out about this violence and obviously the sheriff there believes it was the direct result of cartels coming into our country, working with gangs on the ground here.

this is a serious situation and seems to be only getting worse when you look at the numbers. >> trace: not only dominate the border but are moving in and getting strangleholds in states like california and others states where marijuana has been, you know, given the green light, and they are making this kind of a product of their own coming in and growing it and selling it and causing mayhem all the time. sandra. >> sandra: indeed. >> trace: major update in the murder of a microsoft executive police announce an arrest in the jared bridegan case. nearly a year after he was gunned down on a florida road with his toddler waiting in the car. phil keating live in miami, a lot of details that we still don't know here. >> correct, arrest warrant and the affidavit remain sealed, and investigators are not yet sharing explicit new details. but nearly a year to the day of this brutal murder, jacksonville beach police have arrest and a man in custody.

ongoing investigation into the mysterious murder of the microsoft executive has been basically unsolved. arrested, this man, henry tenon. 61-year-old convicted felon. police chief do not believe he acted alone but would not elaborate. jared bridegan, a software executive was gunned down in february of what police say was a well planned prestaged ambush on a 1 way road, a dark night in jacksonville beach. his 2-year-old toddler in the back seat he had to come to a stop because there was a tire lying in the middle of the road. >> that tire was purposely placed there to make him stop. after putting on his hazard lights and placing his car in park, he opened his door and to presumably move the tire out of the road. it was then that he was gunned down in cold blood. >> also on hand today, bridegan's second wife, the

mother of the toddler wiping tears as she walked away saying nothing. bridegan had just dropped off his twins from his first marriage at his ex-wife's house when the killing happened. shannon gardner fernandez, and her second husband mario fernandez had been considered possible suspects. shortly afterwards, police put out the flyer of a dark f-150 pick-up truck as a vehicle of interest in the case. for nearly a year, nobody was arrested. gardner fernandez and bridegan divorced in 2016 but continued a bitter battle over finances and custody of the twins in family court until his death last year. shortly after the murder the ex-wife pulled her twins out of their private school in the jacksonville area and then moved all the way across the country to the state of washington. again, the arrest affidavit, or the warrant and the affidavit remains sealed. so that's for another 30 days. so new details like how this

guy, tenon, is even related to this case still unknown. >> trace: and the motive and other things. phil keating live in south florida, thank you. >> sandra: fox weather alert, clean-up is underway across louisiana and texas after a line of severe weather spawned tornadoes in both of those states. communities just outside of houston suffered heavy damage there. live in pasadena, texas, one of the hardest hit areas in the state. what does it look like where you are? >> sandra, really destruction when you look all around, in fact we want to show you from our vantage point here, this is spencer highway in pasadena. normally a very, very busy thoroughfare this time of day. you see it's totally shut down, filled with energy crews and emergency management officials trying to clear debris and to get the lights back on. about 16,000 people still without power.

let's get you now to brand-new video just shot by the fox flight team drone, it really shows the scale of this disaster, about 20 miles southeast of downtown houston. countless homes and businesses have had the roofs ripped right off here and also over in neighboring deer park, texas. now, as this system marched further east, funnel clouds coming dangerously close to highways, flipping some vehicles. watch and listen as one couple jumped in a ditch on the side of the road to take cover. >> jump, jump! >> can you imagine? now, they ultimately walked away shaken but unharmed. yesterday's tornado emergency was issued just before 3:00 in

the afternoon. very rare for the national weather service to do so in these parts. today meantime pasadena and deer park schools are closed and may be again tomorrow. the bottom line here, everyone extremely grateful and sort of surprised to be quite frank with you that there were no injuries or fatalities reported with these very, very strong storms. sandra. >> sandra: live in pasadena. casey, thank you. and for continuing coverage, fox weather by downloading the app for free, you can also use your phone to scan the qr code on your screen. >> trace: a fire breaking out at a high rise apartment building in chicago. this happened in the kenwood neighborhood in chicago's south side along lake michigan. it spread to several floors of the 25 story building.

one local official says at least six residents have been taken to the hospital but are in good condition. the fire department says everyone in harm's way has been safely evacuated from the building as they work to put out the flames. continuing coverage as we get more information. >> sandra: it is a story that has gained national attention and one we have followed closely right here at the fox news channel. a stunning decision by the feds in the fight for an american-trained afghan soldier to be freed from a texas detention facility. what we are now learning when we get back. >> trace: the border crisis is taking a toll on cbp agents working on the front lines. dr. marc siegel is calling for action to better protect those agents. he will join us next to tell us what needs to change. >> we are dealing with fentanyl, so it's like their guest said, these people are carrying guns because they are guarding what

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>> sandra: the justice department reversing course by dropping charges against an american trained afghan soldier. he was over several continents to flee the taliban but was detained in texas. more from the washington newsroom on this. did the national attention of this story, jennifer, get the justice department to reconsider this? >> it does seem like it got people's attention, sandra. this is a story we first reported in mid december, right here on your show. after that, it got national attention from a bipartisan group of lawmakers, high level pentagon officials and the white

house. finally, we got good news last night that the federal authorities had dropped the charges against abdul safai, trained by u.s. special forces to fight the taliban. he crossed the southern border illegally in september and found himself the poster child for a broken immigration and asylum system. we have been speaking to his brother sami, an american citizen who also served the u.s. military in afghanistan as a combat translator. he's been working tirelessly with veterans groups to get his brother who crossed the border illegally to seek asylum, freed. >> he served alongside united states special forces and being treated criminal defies everything i've ever known about america. >> sami says he's so grateful so many americans came to his brother's defense. fox news has confirmed he has been released and is now

receiving medical treatment. sami has a room prepared for him in houston. safi faced death threats from the taliban. he documented his journey through ten countries, went into hiding, moving from safe house to safe house, thanks to the help of american veterans he was in contact with. abdul wasi-safi still faces asylum hearings but will not do so from a u.s. prison cell. he will arrive in houston this friday, first time out of u.s. custody since september. we are expecting a press conference with sheila jackson lee texas. 173 afghans are in custody as of january 9, 2023, the agency said. >> sandra: incredible story, jennifer griffin on that. thank you, jennifer. trace. >> trace: for years, seen the heavy burden put on the border agents as large groups of migrants and massive doses of

lethal drugs pour into the u.s., a strain on officer's mental health and well-being. dr. marc siegel, doctor, and author of an opinion piece "we must protect the health of our overwhelmed customs and border protection agents." dr. marc, always great to have you on. i read the op-ed, fascinating and you are right, overwhelmed, not just physically but mentally overwhelmed down on the border. >> trace, first of all, thank you very much. i, of course, have learn the a lot from catching the tremendous reporting of our own bill melugin at the border and what caught my eye, they are administering lie detector tests to get into the custom and border protection agency at a time there are all kinds of retirements going on and half of the people applying are getting rejected, they should not be using lie detector tests. we have the apparition of title

42 withdrawal over their heads that the biden administration is trying to get that withdrawn. it's before the supreme court as you know. that's causing tremendous pressure. the suicide rate is at an all-time high for over a decade, 14 suicides over the past year, 21 deaths in vehicular accidents trying to apprehend. you are talking about 250,000 encounters with migrants over the past month, and over the past two years, 1.2 million got away. that's without even counting what i'm looking at here, which is the public health issues. detainees crowded together, infectious diseases, covid, all of this tremendous psychological and physical pressure on the cbp agents. >> trace: we saw the suicide numbers on the screen, highest since 2009, and covid, etc., and they are seeing people drown, killed in car chases, migrants

suffocating in the back of these big rigs by the dozens and beaten and raped on the way up, they see all of this stuff and their own superiors as we learned in the haitian migrant scandal, fiasco, the superiors are not backing them up, a morale killer, a strain mentally on the men and women. >> extremely well said. i think of them as healthcare, a front line healthcare workers. we tend to think oh, emergency personnel, let's give them some, you know, some applause. let's give them some credit. well, they are handling as you just said, drownings and accidents and trauma and people that have to go to the emergency room and overcrowding of hospitals and they are not getting any credit for it. now, the congress has before it a bill taking action to prevent suicide. but that's just tip of the iceberg stuff. we don't have the people down there to take care of our own,

and these are our people that are protecting us. and of course they can't because of the huge onslaught of people coming in. >> trace: is it just a matter of more border patrol agents, a matter of more forces down there, i have to go, dr. siegel, but what's the remedy here? >> that's the starting place, more forces down there, but we also have to take care of them, we need better conditions, and obviously i don't believe we should be allowing this many people in that aren't checked medically. trace, they are not checked medically the way they are supposed to do. that's the problem with illegal immigration. the biggest problem from a public health point of view, they are not checked medically. >> trace: dr. marc siegel, great to have you on. sandra. >> sandra: thank you very much, trace. any moment now i feel like we could say this almost every day we have been catching this at a crucial time, press secretary karine jean-pierre set to take to the podium at the white house press briefing room and questions over whether she will

continue to stonewall reporters who continue to ask about the classified documents scandal as obviously trace it continues to grow. we have our eye on that. we'll get to her question and answers live when that begins. >> trace: and grow and grow and grow. a republican senator is pushing for a nationwide ban of tiktok, calling it china's back door into americans' lives. will it receive bipartisan backing and make its way to the president's desk. tech expert kara frederick is here to weigh in on that. >> chinese communist backed party is compromising our national security and personal privacy. ray's a1c is down with rybelsus®. i'm down with rybelsus®. my a1c is down with rybelsus®. in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill. in the same study, people taking rybelsus®

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ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. >> trace: press secretary karine jean-pierre set to face another round of tough questions as investigators look to expand their search for more documents at the president's beach home. the white house though is

reportedly relieved by the news that investigators have also found classified documents at former vice president mike pence's indiana home. peter doocy is live inside the briefing room. peter, did reporters get to ask the president about the scandal today? >> they did, got to ask, trace, and the latest round of questions to president biden about former vice presidents with classified material sounded like this. >> mr. president, any response to the pence disclosures of classified documents? >> sir, searches at your homes completed? >> mr. president, when is jeff zion starting as the next chief of staff? >> lawmakers on capitol hill are breaking with the white house special counsel's office an official is insisting most of the negative coverage is driven by the media. senate's number two democrat does not seem to think so. >> i will tell you, when it comes to members of congress and classified documents we go through an elaborate careful process even to read one of

these pieces of paper and the thought of keeping them on our desk to get around to later or taking them home or out of the office is unthinkable at this level. >> white house officials are hoping to change the subject. they had the president talking about ukraine aid, john kirby will come out a little while from now to explain some aid and the tanks the u.s. will send to ukraine, but still a lot of unanswered questions about this. pretty much all the questions about this are unanswered. trace. >> trace: they are. peter doocy, back to you when the briefing starts. thank you. sandra. >> sandra: thank you. we'll keep our eye on the white house. meanwhile, tiktok could soon be on the chopping block here in the united states. missouri senator josh hawley plans to introduce a bill to ban the popular social media app nationwide. the lawmaker calling tiktok china's back door into american's lives. he also says it threatens the privacy and mental health of our children. kara frederick is the director

of the tech policy center at the heritage foundation joins us now. wonderful to meet you, welcome to the show and here is hawley on that this morning. listen. >> what my bill does is at this time specifically goes after tiktok, it bans it. it does not ban any other app, but also requires a comprehensive report to congress on the threat tiktok poses and relationship with the ccp, chinese communist party which is important. >> sandra: you are here with your research and support a ban of tiktok, government devices, that is happening coast to coast, many states have chosen to ban tiktok on government devices but why for everyone documents the ban? >> yeah, that stops the bleeding a little bit but does not -- it's not a panacea and when you have personal devices they can connect to official wi-fi networks and the crux of the

matter is in what senator hawley basically said, the relationship with the chinese communist party. we know in china they have a 2017 national intelligence law that says any private company is subject to the ccp. if the ccp comes knocking for data, they want information on people, users on the platform you have to give it up and bite dance, headquartered in beijing, it is a chinese company beholden to the ccp. >> sandra: a 16-year-old kid at home in their bedroom in iowa, on tiktok, sharing whatever they are, that information is owned by the ccp? >> access it. readily available, and we know they have said that that does not happen, but given forbes reporting, buzzfeed reporting, leaked audio and documents we have seen, we know that engineers in china have accessed u.s. user data. we know that bite dance engineers have used tiktok to

spy and surveil journalists, at least two of them, potentially three americans, so it's a surveillance app. the back door is very obvious as senator hawley said as well. so, this is a comprehensive threat. threatens the children, exploitation, blackmail in the future. >> sandra: huge implications, ashley hinson, the rep from iowa who joined us a few minutes ago tweeted this out, tiktok is dangerous ccp spy ware. china is using it to track americans, particularly our kids. a growing call to do just this. seeing it not just at the state level with some of the government devices acting on their own, but also colleges and universities, we have a scroll here, i mean, it is incredible, kara, a growing list of colleges and universities in this country that are going at it on their own to ban tiktok on university devices and accounts. that's not to say that kids cannot still access it on their private iphone or accounts or whatever it may be.

this is a move in the direction of so many places saying this is bad stuff. >> oh, yeah, and not just the data security issues or the surveillance potential but it's the mental health aspects as well, and you know, there should be a moms against tiktok, we are both moms right now and we are seeing what it's doing to the cognitive security frankly what we call it in the tech community of our children influence operations, we know that pro ccp narratives are pushed on the platform. lights a fire under social contagions. you have doctors saying the one thing in common when young girls show up at the hospital with physical ticks like tourette's-like syndrome, they follow influencers on tiktok with the same thing and they push it through the platform and yet everyone is talking about the chinese version, it's like spinach, you know, eat your greens, time limits, it pushes engineering educational videos. for us, eating disorders, suicide, etc., etc. >> sandra: goodness. we'll continue to follow this and see where it goes.

it looks like when you have it banned on government devices, banned at colleges and universities it will be moving in that direction. we'll see. i know there is a lot of republican members of congress standing up to do just that. good to have you here. thank you very much. trace, i know this is of particular interest to you, you have college-age kids. >> trace: yeah. yeah, and that's the whole thing. it's not banned at the university of alabama, but auburn right there, and the kids say we can find work arounds, ways to ban it on campus and are doing that at every campus. the kids say no, no, we found a work around. >> sandra: i think alabama was on the list. >> trace: i haven't heard if it is. auburn was on there, i don't know if alabama is on the list. if it is, then yeah, ok, good. >> sandra: it says alabama on here, i assume, team, the university of alabama, can we tell trace? that is the case. so, about you your daughters

still have access on their personal devices, but this is the university devices and accounts. i mean, they are starting in some of these places, trace, very interesting stuff, though. >> trace: yeah, and the media departments, etc. good news for me, thank you. >> sandra: ok, dad. >> trace: florida governor ron desantis target of liberal critics, this time banning an african studies program. he says it's critical race theory stuffed inside a history class. jessica tarlov and will cain ready to debate next hour. >> sandra: take a look at this, something we have all had on our radar. this is amazing video. coast guard agents stopping that boat crammed with hundreds of haitian migrants, children on board, trying to make their way ashore in the u.s. brazen behavior like that finally cause this administration to get serious about migrants who are especially making dangerous

journeys like that? arkansas senator tom cotton is here coming up.

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-when you bundle with us. -don't look at the hedges. -they're a mess. -no one's looking at the hedges. >> trace: white house briefing now underway, here is john kirby. listen in for a few seconds. >> how many like to have to get what they want to do done. counter offensives, and do you think they are going to get there with this whole hodge podge of different western contributions? >> you are right. i'm not going to speak for president zelenskyy. if he was up here instead of me, he would tell you he wants as many as he can as fast as he can. the batallion we will provide, 31, ukrainian size, 30, 31 tanks, and the germans are going to help organize another two battalions, so about 60 more, roughly. and that's just what was talked

about today. the brits have agreed to send some of their challenger tanks. you heard the president talk about the french and their contributions to armored vehicles. so there's a lot that's being applied to this. and armored vehicles are important, you know. you don't go after a crocodile with a corn stalk and these vehicles, these tanks, those armored vehicles, they will have an effect. >> but just the goals which are approaching quickly, right, if it's going to be a spring offensive, talking a couple months or so. do you feel confident that the ukrainians are going to get to where they want to be in terms of the armor for these combined arms maneuvers we talk about, that they can have all that ready? >> i can go so far as to tell you it is our goal and goal shared by our allies and partners, including in the phone call this morning that the president had, that we accomplish exactly that goal, that we get to ukraine the

capabilities they need to be successful on the battlefield today but just as critically in the future, going forward this year. because right now i mean, it's wintertime, so the conditions are not great. there is some fighting in the donbas, but other than that, there has not been a whole heck of a lot, at least around in the downtown in the south. as the weather conditions improve, you can expect the russians will pick up the tempo. we have to be ready for that and the ukrainians feel they have to be ready for that. it's about helping ukraine defend itself but also as you heard the president say, helping ukraine go on the offense when the weather conditions and when the operational conditions are permissive. does that answer your question? >> how much of the u.s. announcement was a diplomatic effort actually battlefield capability effort in the months ahead when the tanks could be delivered?

>> both, both. a lot of diplomacy went into the announcements today and you know, i know we have all been focused on the last few days and things said publicly, but actually the effort, the decision you saw today by both germany and the united states was several weeks in the making through many, many discussions with the germans and their allies, and allies and partners. but also a military component here, too, phil. i get it. where you are kind of going, the tanks are not going to get there for many months and i understand that. but the leopards won't take as long to get there as the abrams and we are not wasting the time. even as we procure these tanks, we are going to be, the pentagon very soon will start doing the training for ukrainian tankers and ukrainian troops that man tanks so they can be ready to receive once those tanks are on the battlefield. and it's not just how to operate the abrams, it's how to maintain them and build in, have an organic supply chain process,

logistical sustainable process to keep them maintained and in the long fight over the long haul. >> with you talked about the progression and the russian threats of escalation or talking about crossing red lines. do you feel those threats at this point are both just par for the course but also somewhat empty on the -- >> russian threats? >> don't seem to stop anything. >> we don't -- i mean, look, we don't just take anything for granted when they say it. and we are not dismissive. that said, these tanks are meant to help ukraine fight effectively on open terrain, to defend their sovereignty and their territory and to win back territory that the russians have taken from them and as the president said, they don't represent an offensive threat to russia. do they represent a threat to russian soldiers, you bet they

do. but not to russian soldiers in ukraine, not to russia proper. >> thank you. phil asked my question. >> good, we can go to the next one. [laughter] >> no, no, you know, expectation that the tanks will be delivered in months, correct me if i'm wrong, the reports that the russians might launch a counter attack now. do you see this as a catalyst for the russians now to launch an attack, to escalate the war in a way to stop them before they reach -- before they receive these tanks, if they are going to make any change in the war? >> i never do well if i try to speak for the russians and try to get inside their head and what their intents are. what we do believe -- all i can tell you is what we believe, and that is that the russians, mr. putin, will use the winter, not only to conduct operations which

he is in fact -- but to use it to regroup, to retrain, to reequip and to prepare himself for continued fighting when the weather improves. so we want to make sure that we are using this time as best we can, a, to help the ukrainians in the fight that they are in today, but make sure that they are ready for the fight tomorrow, that they are ready to defend themselves against whatever offensive operations the russians might be planning to do when the weather improves. i cannot predict perfectly how it's going to go -- some of the criticism i've heard, it's hand to mouth and you guys are not thinking ahead and it's just whatever the need is for today and this decision today is very much indicative of the president's long-term commitment to ukraine and how he has tasked the national security team to think ahead, to plan ahead, to help the ukrainians get ahead of what's coming down the pike.

>> two quick follow-ups. you noticed our military aid to ukraine has evolved with conditions on the grounds and the president previously said that these m1 abrams were needed to liberate ukraine. does the administration expect any operations moving forward that would include retaking crimea or lands lost during the russian invasion? >> i'm not going to talk about ukrainian operations. i would never violate their operational security and certainly would not divulge from the podium what their plans and intentions are. i will only say this, that we do not dictate to the ukrainians how they operate, where they operate, what missions they conduct, what targets they choose. we help them with usable information and intelligence as best we can so that they can be successful, but these are their decisions to make, it is their country, their war. our job is to make sure they can prosecute that war successfully. >> and follow up to make sure i

understood you correctly. you said previously in your assessment with the military and economic aid to ukraine that at this point thus far you have not seen any signs of corruption or misuse. >> correct. >> thanks, john. can you tell us a little bit more about how the u.s. settled on the number of tanks it's providing, 31. very specific number. >> i kind of got to it a little earlier. it's basically the size of a ukrainian tank battalion. a little astray of my knowledge, i was a naval officer, but as i understand it in american tank battalion has about 50 tanks in it and organized with more companies to comprise the batallion than in ukraine. it's just the way the ukrainian army is organized. not right or wrong, their battalions are basically at i believe two companies, so they are just smaller, and so two companies, it's about 15 tanks a company and that's how you get to the 30, 31.

and usually -- at least one of these tanks is the commander is in there, so you have a command and control tank that sort of is in charge of how they are operating on the field and now i'm really, really going astray of my expertise. but i think that's as far as i know. >> the ukrainians said today thank you very much, now ho about some fourth generation fighter jets. what are the chances of that happening? >> we are in constant discussions with the ukrainians about their capabilities and as i've said, we evolve those as the conditions change. can't blame the ukrainians for wanting more and more systems, it's not the first time they have talked about fighter jets. i don't have announcements to make on that front. >> is there a concern if the tanks were to fall in russian hands they would have access to the latest u.s. technology? >> there is always what we call tech transfer concerns, and that would be the case with other systems that we have provided to

ukraine. this kind of gets to the corruption question but not really. we just have not seen any indications that any of the material we have provided ukraine is not being stored appropriately, used appropriately, maintained appropriately, and being fought with appropriately. we are not seeing that happen. but is that a potential risk, it's always a risk in war, it's a risk when we fight a war. that's why we are working so closely with the ukrainians on accountability, and work with the ukrainians on accountability so we have a better site picture on where these things are at any given time but it's a war and you cannot forget that. it's a war. >> john, why not take the abrams out of existing stocks to get them there faster. is there a reason you want more training before that happens, or is there some u.s. need that you want to keep -- >> the pentagon says they don't

have any excess abrams in their inventory, that all of them are gainfully employed, if you will, for our own national security defense and even if there were excess tanks, the process of getting them to ukraine, to prepare them for use by the ukrainians to train ukrainians, put all the parts and supplies in place would take many months anyway. so, it's not like this procurement process is really costing us any time than if we just drew them out of our own stocks. the real reason is we don't have excess tanks. the second thing is, and this is not unimportant, is that, and i mentioned this a little earlier. when they get there, we want to make sure that they fall on ready hands, and that the ukrainians know how to use them and keep them running and they have the supply chain in place

for spare parts and supplies and anything else they need to be more effective on the battlefield. >> given the process, what's the soonest the abrams could get there? >> the pentagon talked about this earlier today. there's no date certain, i think many months before they are actually there. >> john, to your term about longer term planning and absorption rates and sebastian's question of the number of tanks, adviser to zelenskyy's office told my colleague after this announcement what they want, what they need, 200 to 350 tanks from the west. is that a realistic number, if not now, maybe in the future if the ukrainians should happen to prove they can absorb the initial traunch of tanks and maintain it? >> i don't think it's wise to get ahead of where we are right now. we are focused on working on this program to get them,

procure them, the 31 abrams tanks to include all the supplies and parts that go with it and the training required to operate and maintain them and we know, certainly based on the conversation the president had this morning, our allies and partners in europe are likewise focused to include the german leopard tanks in a shorter period of time. >> to be clear, the future shipment of tanks is not off the table. >> we are focused on the announcement the president made today. >> quickly, he also said the next step for ukrainians will be to request extended range missiles. is that under consideration? >> we are in constant conversations with the ukrainians about capabilities. i don't have any announcements to make. >> with many months being the time frame, is it fair to say they will not be use for the spring offensive and secondly, one of the concerns was fuel concerns. how is that being dealt with? >> that is part of the supply chain issue, isn't it.

it's a jet engine, a gas turbine engine that needs jet fuel. a specific type of fuel that powers the abrams and we have to make sure that pipeline, literally and figuratively is available. it will take many months before the tanks get there, and not ahead of specific spring offensives. we think as the weather improves, the russians will want to increase their tempo. we want to make sure the ukrainians cannot only meet that tempo but be capable of their own and what it looks like and when it starts or where, that's really up to president zelenskyy and his military advisers, we would not speak to that. the only thing i add to that, the leopard tanks will not take as long to get on the ground, they won't take the same length of time the abrams will in order to arrive. >> thank you. you'll go after. >> i'm sorry, i screwed up the

flow. >> to follow up on amer's question about the many months' timeline, can you articulate why the decision did not take place sooner? >> you could ask that question about almost any system we provided and the answer is almost all the same. we are in constant conversation about the ukrainians and their needs and address the needs short-term and long-term and the decision that the president announced today was a result of a lot of conversations with the ukrainians as well as with our allies and partners, and it is very much as i answered before, very much about forecasting, trying to get ahead of the kinds of fighting in the coming months in the spring and summer of this year. >> one quick follow-up, i was struck with something the president said about ensuring that neighbors cannot steal other neighbor's territory,

something you have brought up many, many times and curious if you can help us understand why the administration has not changed course on your predecessor, former president donald trump's position on the golan heights and what makes that situation distinct from what's going on in russia and ukraine. >> look, the different scenarios completely, and i'm not here prepared to talk much about that except to say we have been very consistent that we want to see a two-state solution and we believe the president believes that a two-state solution is possible, and could be viable. but it takes both sides to be willing to commit to that and we don't want to see, don't want to see either side take unilateral actions to decrease the possibility of reaching a two-state solution. >> could you bring us behind the scenes of the negotiations. >> you are behind her, i could not see you. >> thank you.

i was wondering, if you could give us some details about the negotiations behind the scenes with the europeans. >> talk behind the scenes at the podium. >> especially what type of conversations have there been with the european union, the government of spain. >> the discussions have been very robust with our european allies and partners again for many weeks here and certainly discussion today the president had with his counterparts in the u.k., france, germany, and italy, was again, very productive, very candid. it all -- all these leaders are rightly focused on doing what they can to help ukraine and rightly focused on the future and i can't speak for spanish-decision making here, spain obviously has been a contributor and supporter of spain, and always welcome, and the president addressed some of their cont