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tv   The Faulkner Focus  FOX News  March 2, 2023 8:00am-9:00am PST

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one left there. i thought also perhaps, if you are looking for a friendly juror in this case, the video of the witnesses expressing the love that murdaugh had for maggie, maybe you make the argument that could be effective. we'll see when we get. >> dana: did at the fence trying to raise some reasonable doubt in the case. we'll continue to follow that as they come back from their break. harris faulkner is next. here she is. >> harris: we'll get back to the murdaugh trial, the double murder trial of that prominent attorney in south carolina alex murdaugh. we begin with this fox news alert. attorney general merrick garland's first trip to capitol hill this year and it wasn't easy. four hours of relentless questioning by republicans on the senate judiciary committee. i'm harris faulkner and you are in "the faulkner focus." those republicans directly accuse merrick garland of politicizing the justice department.
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investigations into former president donald trump and president biden both happening right now. lawmakers are questioning if the same standards are being applied to each man. some especially hot topics, the targeting pro-life activists while letting pro-abortion vandals go off the hook. verbal attacks on federal judges. it was not a tame affair during that hearing. >> you come across as being very political in the decisions that you make. >> we greatly respect the oversight responsibilities and at the same time we have to protect our ongoing investigations. >> we have had protestors who have been showing up at the homes of supreme court justices carrying signs, picketing, shouting. it is very clear they are trying to influence in one way or another. >> as soon as the dobbs draft leaked, i ordered the marshals to do something that the united
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states marshals had never in history done before. >> historically federal judges have had a hard time defending themselves. it is not just limited to the outside partisan -- this is a speech by a united states senator calling the judge a life long right wing activist partisan ideologue and anti-apportion zealot. i wonder if you will join me in condemning that sort of attack. >> i'm against divisive rhetoric of all kinds but i do not have authority in this matter. >> harris: john cornyn of texas in "focus" now rounding out that montage. a member of the judiciary committee also you sit on the finance and intelligence committees as well. first of all, what was the highlight of that hearing yesterday with the attorney general would you say? >> harris, i think more in terms
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of low lights rather than highlights. but i was disappointed. merrick garland served for many years as a federal judge. by all accounts was a fair judge. but he knows that these attacks against the judiciary, whether it's the supreme court or other judges, is unfair and it is dangerous. we know that people perhaps unstable people can be incited to commit acts of violence and indeed it was just last year that justice kavanaugh was being threatened with assassination. i would hope that merrick garland as the chief law enforcement officer of the united states would condemn it but he wouldn't do it. >> harris: it took the president of the united states many days to even mention that was going on. you know, i had just told viewers that a lot of hot topics came up. this was one of them. a new report from the
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"washington post" says temperatures were flaring over the raid on trump's maier lag owe property. the justice department overruled f.b.i. officials hesitant to carry out that search. it looked like a raid for classified documents. here is the attorney general on that. >> my question is how often do you overrule f.b.i. field agents for political purposes? >> that is not an accurate reflection of what a article says. i can't comment on the y experience, long experience as a prosecutor, there is robust discussion. >> harris: robust discussion. it sounded like it got tempers flaring. what is your take? >> well, the attorney general unfortunately is undermining trust and confidence in the department of justice and the f.b.i. and when people see the
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different treatment in different cases where president biden is involved or the vice president pence and then president trump, they come to the conclusion in the absence of other information, there must be a double standard. indeed there does seem to be a double standard and it is dictated by politics, which is unacceptable. >> harris: all of that it blew up. everybody knew the raid had gone on, so on and so forth and we sat for months without knowing that joe biden had classified documents in at least one location. it started at the penn biden center named for him. he got a million dollars to use his name for that. it is different treatment. why? >> well, i think unfortunately we don't have an attorney general that has the strength of character and the will to stand up to the politics that are coming obviously from the white house and directing his actions.
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being attorney general is a tough job because you are the chief law enforcement officer of the government but you are also a cabinet member for the president of the united states. and what we need -- what the american people want and what they deserve is impartial justice administered without fear of favor regardless of whether you are the president of the united states or an average working family. they just do not have that trust because of different treatment like this. >> harris: before we move on because there were so many topics that they got to garland on. since i have you, i have to ask this. you are on the intelligence committee. the first documents. top secret documents that biden had having to do with at least iran, china and other countries, ukraine was one of them. what can you tell us about any connection points that the intelligence committee would
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look at between some of what biden had and the investigation that's going on with his son, hunter biden, known to make some pretty shady business dealings with 1 or 2 of those countries? >> this is another area where we have been stonewalled by the biden justice department. i and other committee members have a constitutional responsibility to do oversight of the intelligence community to make sure they are following the rules and not abusing the power that they do have, which is significant. and so far we've been stonewalled by the attorney general. he says this is -- he doesn't want to jeopardize an investigation. we would like to know whether president biden's access and carelessness, frankly, with classified documents has jeopardized our national security. we can't assess that without getting access to the documents.
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this is not a partisan matter. this is something that both republicans and democrats have been clear about and supported by all the members of the intelligence committee seeking access to these document, as is our right. >> harris: you talk about the articles at biden's home parked next to the corvette and his son driving the same car if delaware. senator also putting a.g. garland on blast over the crisis at our southern border and massive amounts of fentanyl pouring into america. lindsey graham pointed at mexican drug cartels as the root of the problem. >> mexican drug cartels, should they be designated foreign terrorist organizations under u.s. law? >> i think that's the same answer i gave before. >> would you oppose some of us trying to make them foreign terrorist organizations? >> i wouldn't oppose it. we need the assistance of mexico
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in this. >> is mexico helping us effectively with our fentanyl? >> they are helping us but could do much more. >> if this is helping i would hate to see what not helping looks like. >> harris: he said the ultimate decision falls under the state department. you are leading a delegation to the southern border tomorrow. tell us about that and your reaction to what you heard from the a.g. yesterday. >> well, you know, the attorney general says it is not his job, it is the state department to deal with these matters. i'm for giving the federal government every tool necessary to combat the cartels smuggling people and drugs into the united states. as we've said, taking so many lives and adding to crime in communities all across our country. i'm taking a group of senators to the border starting tonight so they can see what i've seen on many trips to the border and
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listen to the experts, the people who i have learned from, and the community leaders being overwhelmed by this humanitarian crisis. they are interested in getting more information and i'm interested in getting some allies to help us in this fight against this crisis, which is -- sits at president biden's feet. it is the biden border crisis. >> harris: your presence there whenever there is someone with a bully pulpit is so important at the border. it is really too bad the white house won't go and that they won't go more and more and more until they solve it. senator, great to have you in "focus" today. thank you. >> thank you. >> harris: one michigan mom. the senator talked about this a little bit. we'll give you an example how fentanyl is eating us up. one michigan mom lost her two sons to fentanyl poisoning. how bad the crisis is. she gave very emotional testimony on capitol hill earlier this week.
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you saw parts of this. pointed the finger squarely at the biden administration just as the senator just did. i will talk with rebecca keysling later this hour and get her response to president biden laughing during comments on that powerful, tearful testimony. the white house still doing that new report, still talking about the new report on the origins of covid-19. a lot of people have a lot of questions about it and why won't the white house dig in? >> this administration continues to have too little too late. they simply want to hide the information when, in fact, we have compelling evidence that the wuhan lab, not nature, is the reason why covid happened. >> harris: the press secretary for the white house said the president wants to get to the bottom of this and the spokesperson admiral kirby says there is no consensus where it came from but there are at least two federal agents see the
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f.b.i. and energy department who say it likely came from the wuhan lab in china. republicans demanding declassification of all that information. some democrats want to keep it under wraps. why can't we all see it? arkansas governor sarah huckabee sanders in "focus" next. (vo) if you've had thyroid eye disease for years and you go through artificial tears in the blink of an eye, it's not too late for another treatment option. to learn more visit treatted.com. that's treatt-e-d.com.
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>> harris: the senate unanimously passed a bill last night requiring the declassification of intelligence on the notorious wuhan laboratory in china. the lab the f.b.i. and energy department both say likely leaked and triggered the covid pandemic. a top house democrat says some people in his party are hinting that the information maybe ought to be classified. >> we believe in letting
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committees of jurisdiction guide the discussions ahead working with the administration and asking the administration tough questions. when we can do that in a way that can be shared with the american public, we will. but declassification conversations are best left to the executive. >> harris: the house subcommittee on the pandemic says it will hold its first hearing on the origins of covid-19 next week and even though two agencies, the f.b.i. and energy department have both said the virus most likely originated in the wuhan lab, the biden administration, the white house both seem to be torn. >> we have seen many, many different conclusions, right, from the intelligence community. some of them have made some conclusion on one side. some on the other side. some say they don't have enough information. i want to be very careful there as well. and it was because of this president very early on, the first several months of his
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administration went to the intelligence community and said we need to figure out how to get to the bottom of this and how this all occurred because who knows? >> harris: did he try talking to the last administration? they had some ideas on that. in "focus" sarah huckabee sanders governor of the great state of arkansas. i haven't seen you since then. congratulations, governor. do we need to see this material? does it need to be declassified widely? >> we know that china is not going to be a good actor in this process. they are our biggest adversary. they lied about covid and we have to hold them accountable. we have the media and democrats acting like defense attorneys for the chinese instead of helping get to the bottom of what actually happened where i think even their own agencies are starting to point to the fact that this came from a chinese lab. and we have to hold them accountable and i think we need
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to hold all those that are part of the cover-up accountable as well. >> harris: i put this in the same bucket as information was given at the very beginning of his presidency to biden and his team about the border. same thing i would imagine with covid. you had a brand-new vaccine, things that were going on. i can't imagine that intelligence at that time would not have been shared about whatever they knew about that lab. we were already talking about the lab and getting stickers on social media for asking about it. >> the outrage from the left on what looks like is the absolute truth what is we are used to dealing with the democrats and liberal left. they love to blame us for things and turn out later it is true. every single thing the biden administration touches, they seem to screw up. you mention the border. it is a disaster. this is biden's border crisis and something they have created
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and refuse now to clean up aened do something about. thankfully we have republican governors who are stepping up trying to fix that problem. we now have members of the senate who are holding people like attorney general garland accountable and turning up the heat and making sure that we are actually getting real answers the some of the questions out there. >> harris: all right. you mentioned garland. let's go there. louisiana senator john kennedy with tough questions for the a.g. with about the f.b.i. targeting parents at school board meeting. it began with a 2020 letter from the school board association likening parents to domestic terrorist. here is part of that exchange. >> you issued a directive to your criminal division to start investigating parents who are angry. >> nothing in my memorandum says to investigate parents who are angry. >> this looks like you were giving into the teachers unions and politicizing the honest disagreements. we only as a result of some of
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our school board policies, we only experienced the largest learning loss for our kids in modern history. don't you think parents had a right to be upset? >> harris: governor. >> it is absolutely absurd the way that the attorney general and the entire d.o.j. under president biden have become so political going after parents who actually care about what is happening with their kids, the way they allowed the schools to stay shut down and the impact that we have seen that have on kids not just the learning loss, but the mental health impact that has had on our students across the country and that they are targeting those parents. americans shouldn't have to sit at home while drinking coffee worried whether or not they will have federal agents show up at their door and berate them when we have real problems they need to be focused on. they continue to ignore those and instead target conservatives.
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there is always one set of rules for the liberal elite and another set for conservatives. i'm glad we have members in the republican senate asking hard questions and again pushing them for real answers and holding them accountable. we have to continue to hope that will be the case. >> harris: i want to talk about your legislation now in your state. the senate passed your sweeping school choice legislation and it is expected to pass the house there as well. here is some powerful testimony from arkansas's 2022 teacher of the year. let's watch. >> there are things that we know are not working and areas where we must do better. this bill addresses that. governor sanders has said she will be known as arkansas's education governor and i believe she is committed to that. arkansas will be known as the state that truly reforms education and changes the outcomes for all students. >> harris: what will it look like once your legislation starts to roll out? >> we've put forward the biggest
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and boldest conservative education reform package certainly in our state's history. maybe anywhere in the country because what we are seeing being delivered to our students is not meeting the expectation that we want to see happen here in the state. we have to do better. we cannot just kick the can down the road. we're doing things to empower our parents, empower our teachers and make sure our students across the state have access to a quality education. we can no longer allow students to get lost in the system. we will go from being one of the lowest-paid teachers in the country to the very highest of anywhere in the united states. we are making sure parents have choices about how and where their kids are educated and that there is transparency in the curriculum. no longer allow our students to fail. we'll reform the system and people who will benefit the most are kids across the state of arkansas. it can be a blueprint for states everywhere to follow what we'll do and accomplish in the state
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of arkansas. >> harris: i've been keeping up with it. you have gotten a little pushback going forward but it went through the senate and hits the house next. you were bridging a divide that we saw all over the country between teachers and parents, between teachers unions and parents. you are focusing on the kids. keep us apprised of how it rolls out. if you want to see beautiful parks in arkansas follow her on instagram. the governor's tour is on. you probably didn't know i knew that. good to see you. >> thanks, harris. >> harris: we'll go back now to the closing arguments by the defense in the alex murdaugh trial. they had taken a 10 or 15 minute break. let's get back in. >> the tarp was laid on when she went to work. barbara ann came in and said i didn't see it. no time during that week when i worked was there a blue tarp. you know, shelly remembers
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something but not a blue rain coat and certainly alex could not have come over there on wednesday. he said he spoke to me about times and that i called my brother. we're not disputing that. what she didn't say is alex told me to say i was here and 45 minutes or things like that and frankly it doesn't make a lot of sense. alex kept saying you get my phone records and you will know exactly what time i was when i was there. and i'll get to this a little bit more in a moment but mr. waters keeps talking about oh, he is hurrying to get over there to compress the time. compress the time so that it looks like he has been gone from moselle longer than he was. fair enough argument?
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i understand his point but that point is -- evaporates when you talk about how long you are at alameda. it doesn't matter if he is there 45 minutes or 20 minutes. does it really matter how long he was there? now, i guess before you had onstar data they could be saying he said he was there 45 minutes but only there 22 minutes and spent the other 10 or 15 minutes trudging through the woods burying bloody clothes and getting rid of murder weapons. well, we may have heard that in this trial had we not gotten the onstar data from general motors that shows he drove over there, drove straight back. another small point. he said there is biological material on the polaris.
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i don't think it was tested. it looks like it. what we learned in this case is things aren't always as they seem. they thought they had blood on the shirt. turns out no blood on the shirt. and that this biological material showed that maggie was running toward her baby. i don't know there is any evidence which way maggie was running or what she was running to. there is not. it's a fair inference and everyone who knows maggie would know that's what she would do. we're not disputing that would be her -- that would be her mother instinct. did that probably happen? it probably did. but it is just to state it as a fact there is no evidence of that. one thing he also said, the cell phone back light turning on. i don't have an apple phone but
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-- here is the issue. mine will do it but i don't have apple phone, i don't think. but you take a phone flat and pick it up. the light comes on. and why is that important? why is that important? i'll probably turn the phone off. if i'm making a point that you all know the answer to i apologize but it is important that you do know the answer. why this is important. it is important because now that we have the onstar data we know alex drove his suburban by the spot where maggie's phone was found at 9:08. there is probably seconds in there but either way. and we know that her phone is in the woods at that point. so the question is, did alex throw it out the window? and the answer is no, he didn't.
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because if you throw it out the window at a minimum the display light is going to come on. at a minimum. when that display light comes on it registers. these phones say a lot. lesson learned in this case. it registers in the knowledge database and it says display light on and has a time the display light came on. on maggie's phone the display light does not come on at 9:08. means alex didn't throw the phone out. and yesterday mr. waters says every single expert testified the back light comes on and sometimes it doesn't. when the phone is raised aggressively. that's not true. only one person testified to that. another witness who over the weekend works for carleton county sheriff's department. i don't know why they didn't get
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sled to do it. he got a phone similar to one that maggie had, not maggie's phone. had software -- not the same version as maggie, and he spent all weekend throwing the phone on the ground to see what would happen or many hours a day and i comes in here and says folks, sometimes the light comes on, sometimes it doesn't. well, our expert says it comes on. it comes on. that's what we are talking about. that's what we are talking about. we wouldn't even be having this discussion if they had secured maggie's phone and not allowed -- and put it in a bag so that the gps coordinates would not have been overridden and they were. now we have a guy in charleston throwing a phone around all weekend. because they are desperate to
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prove alex threw the phone out when he went by there and they have no evidence of that. the evidence is the contrary. he did not. evidence supports everything that he said from the day he had that interview or the couple of days. you get onstar data, you get gps data and my gps data and you will know i'm not traveling with her phone. never got it, rode over it and now we have a guy tossing a phone in an office doesn't work for sled. not every expert says that. that's not his area of expertise. so let me see if i have hit all. oh yeah, the last one is about me. mr. waters says that i did an hbo interview in november of
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2022 and he references some things i said in hbo interview. well, i didn't. he knows i didn't. it was testified about. there is hbo special. i am on it. i'm not telling anybody to watch it but that was filmed back in spring or summer of 2022. well before he was charged with murder. i'm not on tv talking about his murder charges. he wants you to think that. i don't know why. i take offense to that, i really do. >> and we object, because he was. >> i was not being interviewed. >> objection was overruled. >> i was not being interviewed in november of 2022. not. so i've asked why, why, why, why
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and they can't answer that. they don't have an answer as to why. now how? how? how could alex in the time period we know -- we will get to it. but how could he have butchered maggie and paul without leaving a trace of evidence within a matter of minutes? how, how? the answer to the how is he couldn't. but this is the wrong question to be asking yourselves. the question that you are tasked with answering is has the state presented evidence that proves beyond a reasonable doubt showing that alex butchered maggie and paul and not a trace of evidence within a matter of minutes. have they proven evidence? did they present evidence of that, proof beyond a reasonable doubt? he was able to make bloody
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clothes, bloody guns, who knows how much, whatever, disappear in a matter of minutes without leaving a trace? without leaving a trace. of course they haven't. reasonable doubt is doubt that causes a reasonable person to hesitate in most important decisions of your life. and here the -- there is no direct evidence of alex doing anything other than he is at the kennel 8:44 and it's pleasant family talking about bubba the dog getting a chicken. so the state is trying to weave this story of his guilt based upon circumstantial evidence. the judge charged you about that and i have no dispute with what the state put up here yesterday.
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that's the law. he will give you the written document with the charge and you will see in there that when they relied upon circumstantial evidence it's as good as direct evidence but there are some things that it has to do to be as good as direct evidence. and what it has to do, the circumstantial evidence is, the circumstances must be consistent with each other and when taken together point conclusively -- conclusively to the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt. if these circumstances portray the behavior of a defendant as suspicious, the proof has failed as circumstantial evidence. he was at the kennel at 8:44. paul last used his phone at 8:48. he replied to a text with a friend about a movie recommendation. maggie's phone log for the last
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time at 8:50 and 8:49 and some odd seconds but 8:50. but however her phone recorded significant steps around 8:55. we'll see that. her phone tried to activate the camera at 8:55 and it registered an orientation change at 9:06. understand orientation change. when the phone goes from landscape to portrait or -- beats me. goes from that, that's an orientation change. it did that at 9:06. and they've got 300 shell casings, extract and eject with casing found around the house and shooting range. that's pretty much it. then the circumstantial evidence of his guilt. they want to say he lied about
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it so it's consciousness of guilt. i'm talking about what evidence they have to put all the circumstances together to prove he shot and killed maggie and paul. that's pretty much it. how have they established the time of death here? solely on cell phone use. and using the phone or not using the phone doesn't dictate or define whether you are dead or alive. i would say most everybody in this courtroom doesn't have their phone with them right now. under the state's theory as i mentioned before, if they die while they're not using their phone they're dead the moment they stop using their phone. that's their case and what they have here. there are a number of reasons that paul would stop using his phone. first -- well, first i have two
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testimonial clips but one from rogan. if you will play that quickly, doug. rogan testifying about paul's phone. >> you asked a little bit about paul's cell phone usage. he -- and -- and -- >> all right. what is the objection? >> showing the defendant testifying. i think the testimony >> what is the legal basis for the objection? mr. griffin? >> the clip from the live feed of this trial, your honor. i can't control who is being depicted. my voice asking rogan.
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>> president biden: -- we won't replay the trial. >> it's a clip of a few seconds. >> i'll sustain the objection. >> all right. take it down, doug. you will remember that rogan said when paul's phone -- by the way, if you don't remember and you have questions about it, when you are jury deliberations you can always ask to have testimony replayed for you. can we play the audio without the video? >> you are asking me what can you do? i rule on objections. >> can you play the audio then, please? >> can you tell us about paul's
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cell phone usage? >> and did the battery get down low pretty regularly? >> yes, he would let his phone die sometime. >> when it would get down low did he have a habit of not using it for it not going all the way out? >> yes, i've seen that before. >> have you done that yourself? >> yes, sir. >> you'll note from the photographs and evidence in the case that paul's phone is at 2% and it was an lower power mode at the time he was texting this friend of his about a movie recommendation. and then can you play the audio only of you remember nate? he testified about paul putting the phone down when he was working around the kennels.
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>> how would you describe the relationship between paul and alex? >> they had a really good relationship. >> would you say that -- >> i don't think that's the right clip. >> harris: we'll pull away from this trial for just a moment. let's go to this. >> i'm for giving the federal government every tool necessary in order to combat the cartels that are smuggling people and drugs into the united states and as we've said taking so many lives and adding to crime in communities all across our country. >> harris: texas senator john cornyn earlier this hour on "focus." republicans and democrats are demanding answers and action from the biden white house over the massive amounts of deadly fentanyl pouring over the southern border. u.s. border patrol is telling fox news that from october to
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ja ja janae alone. too many people know the pain firsthand. michigan mom rebecca kiessling lost two of her sons to fentanyl. they were poisoned in 2020. they took percocet and it was laced with fentanyl. she gave heartbreaking testimony before congress this week. >> you talk about children being taken away from their parents? my children were taken away from me. it should not be politicized. it is not about race. talk about welcoming those crossing our borders seeking protection. you are well coming drug dealers across our border and giving them protection. you are not protecting our
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children. >> harris: that shook parents across america when she spoke. she is now here. first of all, so sorry for your loss and the time of life that your young sons were in. one was already as i understand caleb was talking to students about staying off drugs. tell me about these young men. >> he wanted to start talking. he wrote out his testimony and he really believed that he was going to be free from it. he was a very intelligent young man. he scored a 90 on the p cat and he had been the vice president of student council. he was a tremendous athlete. great wrestler, they both played soccer and i have so many good memories of them and i prefer us talking about good memories but i was asked to speak because their story was high profile because three young people died
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at once. most of the time these stories don't make the news. you don't hear about it. and so because i was asked to testify, you know, through my pain i went ahead and di of the -- they wished me condolences but they also talked about hearing a lot of fear mongering and they said it's xenophobe i can to want any kind of control at the border. >> harris: you mentioned the other victim in all this 17-year-old sophia and sophie harris was with your young sons. what is remarkable about all of this, and i don't mean in a good way, is how the president of the united states responded to your testimony that millions of people across the country with our hearts and spirits we were right there with you. i don't know what he watched. but president biden for a moment discussed your family's tragedy this way.
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let's watch. >> president biden: she is very specific recently saying that a mom, a poor mother who lost two kids to fentanyl, that i killed her sons. well, the interesting thing is that fentanyl they took came during the last administration. [laughter] >> harris: he laughed at that. we have had people coming across that border, drug cartels for quite some time. it has become a historic problem now. what do you say to the president of the united states? >> just what a horrible human being. how can he sit there and joke about it? he thought he was with a room full of democrats and he is among friends and they can yuck it up. what kind of a person does that? somebody asked me did he just like misspeak? it shows his heart. you don't have to think about what you say in a moment like
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this and to me it shows this is why he just opened the borders so wide. he just doesn't care. he is completely heartless and what about all the thousands -- hundreds of thousands who lost their children under his administration. in his first year in office, after he lifted all of the border control that had been put in place, there was a 22% increase in fentanyl deaths. that represents tens of thousands of people and their families who have been devastated. do you know how they feel now? they are in my support groups. they are so angry that our president is mocking their losses because their children did die under his administration. >> harris: rebecca, you bring this so much to the forefront and it is so important to hear your voice because as you started with, with your sons
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they were together with a third person sophie harris. these teenagers, young men had so much ahead of them but most of these cases go silently into the internet. they will get one coverage, one story and go away because it is not a cluster like this. >> usually there are no stories. >> harris: what did authorities tell you where the fentanyl came from? >> they said it came from china through our southern border. >> harris: they knew that, the police. >> yeah. they know. they told me all about the presses that come from china. that they are able to make all these pills look perfectly legitimate now. that a few years back you used to be able to tell the difference because it was blurred. now the presses from china you can't tell the difference and that they go through the cartels and are brought into this country. >> harris: that's such important information because when parents
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have that discussion, that tough discussion that they know with their young person and their family is struggling, now they can be even more specific about what to look for. your young sons were working with somebody now doing prison time for selling drugs to them and they were both trying to get their lives on track. >> they were. they both wrote about it. they wanted to be free. kyler graduated from high school the day before they died and they think they thought they were celebrating. it is really unfortunate that i have learned that pills are the number one drug of choice for young people and if there is any question that they are trying to kill off our children, look at the rainbow fentanyl that looks like candy. they are putting it in candy boxes and look how they are adding horse tranquilizers to fentanyl now so you can't be revived with narcan. you can't detect it with
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fentanyl strips. they are trying to kill off our people. this is a war. >> harris: rebecca kiessling i am so sorry for your loss. those words will never take away the way you feel. i pray for you and all those families you are now giving a voice to. >> one more think. the president owes me an apology and the other parents who lost their children. he owes us an apology. >> harris: he does. he absolutely does. it is not to be laughed at. rebecca, god bless you and thank you. >> thank you. >> harris: there was a lot there. before we move on i want to say this in case you missed the last part of what she said it was critically important. these drugs now are being disguised in such a way with the way they are mixing them that narcan will have a hard time knocking it down. that drug dealer who sold them the contaminated percocet was
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revived by narcan. young sophie and caleb and his brother they were not. it was too late for them. narcan is the answer now. let's pray it remains an answer for as long as we can have it. well, i want to take you back to the murdaugh double murder trial now. we stopped down for a moment to be able to talk with rebeak yeah kiessling. that was important. this is, too. these are the closing arguments by the prosecution and i want to catch you up on the biggest takeaways of the defense now closing arguments so far. we had the prosecution until late yesterday and now we've got the defense. ted williams, former police detective, defense attorney and fox news contributor. you have been watching this with me. what are the biggest takeaways and what do you see as a win for each day by each side so far? >> well, harris, i have to tell you the biggest takeaway that we've come away from today is the defense talking about maggie
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murdaugh and the fact that she had hair under her hands that was collected but was not part and parcel of this case. the fact about it is the defense here has an uphill battle because they have to sew and persuade this jury there is reasonable doubt. in order to do that they talked about the fact that paul and maggie's clothes were not collected and that there was dna that was not processed on the clothes. they also talked about what was not a motive and that is on the day or the night that maggie and paul died, paul -- alex was exposed as having stolen over $7 hundred thousand from a client.
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and they are saying that meaning the defense, that this clearly was not a motive to murder his wife and his child. >> harris: but the prosecutors have argued differently. one thing that stood out yesterday for you as we go back to this trial. >> the one thing is the video of maggie, paul, and alex at that kennel at 8:44 that night. there is no way that should we say the defense has overcame that as of yet during their closing argument. >> harris: it was something nancy grace said would be a turning point. jo jonna spilbor was last week when she said that was a problem. how about the hair? >> i think it's significant. you would have thought that if
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maggie had some hair under her fingernails or on her hand that they would have tested that. what the defense argument is that they focus on alex exclusively and didn't do anything else to find out if anybody else killed these two people other than the focus on alex. they feel that was wrong and clearly they believe that should lead to reasonable doubt. >> harris: now before we go back to the trial, last week when you and i were together and alex murdaugh was on the stand you said this is compelling. this side right now has the advantage of a great defendant on the stand. looking back at all of that, how much of that made a difference for these closing arguments today for the defense and we'll go back to the case. >> well, we will find out when we get a verdict in this case as to how much alex being on the stand was compelling in this case. but i do believe, harris, that
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they had to put alex on the stand because alex had to explain that video where his voice was on there with paul and maggie at 8:44 that night just before he said he left moselle to go to visit his mother at 9:07 that night. remember, harris, he said that he had went to sleep. now, if he is at the kennel at 8:44 and he is going and making sure and leaving at 9:07 you have to wonder how much sleep did he get between that time? so that's certainly something that needs to be explained. >> harris: we're watching this. this whole thing start evidence today, ted, with a juror getting kicked off the jury and an alternate coming on. the alex murdaugh defense is delivering their closing arguments and they continue. let's watch together.
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>> if you will go to exh exhibit 524. defense exhibit 524, please. >> i think it's -- state's 524. do you have that? if you will go to the slide where -- no, sir, do you have the whole document? oh, okay. well, i mentioned earlier. so state's exhibit 5241 the onstar data. he goes by the spot at 9:08 where maggie's phone was found and there was testimony that he sped up after he went by there. he sped up to from 42 to 45 and
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went back to 44 miles-per-hour when he went by there. he is not speeding up going by the area where maggie's phone was found whenever it was tossed. and then they have a chart or slide that talks about how long it took him to get over there and the speeds that it took and mr. waters was arguing to you that compressed the timeline. the faster he gets over to alameda it means he is gone longer from moselle and gives him a better alibi because as you know, he is orchestrating this alibi and so he is driving fast over to alameda according to their theory and we drafted it out. he is driving and passing some cars and he is, you know, he is
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a fast driver. okay. so they say oh, he is compressing the timeline. compressing the timeline is what they said. compressing the timeline. then they say he drives fast on the way back. why? he is driving the same speed over there and the same speed back. no reason to compress the timeline coming back. you would want to be driving as slow as you can make it appear you had been gone a lot longer. he drives the same speed from moselle to alameda as from alameda back to moselle. takes him the same amount of time. he is not compressing any timeline at all. and what is the most curious part about maggie's phone, about maggie's phone, what's most curious about it is alex has her
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password, alex if he is wanting to change the timeline, when he calls her phone he should answer her phone. when he texts her, he should reply to that text to show activity on her phone that she is still alive. if he is manufacturing a timeline by speeding, the easiest way to do it is use both phones, talk on both phones, and he didn't. this whole thing about using maggie's phone, driving maggie's phone. throwing her phone out is -- it's such a stretch for them to come in and try to put her phone in his hand and then you start
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thinking through why would alex take her phone and not paul's phone? let's start there. why would alex take her phone without paul's phone? that's a question. i don't have an answer to. it makes no sense. it makes no sense why he would take maggie's phone if there is something on there. he knows her password, put it in and see what it is. we know from all this phone data her phone was never unlocked and he had the keys. so if he has taken her phone to unlock or do something with why, why, why, why? and these are circumstances that have to be consistent with each other and have to point conclusively to the guilt of alex murdaugh, beyond a reasonable doubt and these circums

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