think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no. he's making real-time money moves with merrill. so no matter what the market's doing, he's ready. and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. >> sandra: all new at 2:00, a mother enrolls her child in kindergarten. in her local public school, a huge milestone. and a story that tens of thousands of families across this country can relate to each and every year. but then, for this particular mother, things start to take a turn. >> john: nicole solas says she was stunned to find out that her picture was being used by the

local teachers union. they had made her the poster child of a secret meeting on threats to public education. her offense? asking about the curriculum. >> sandra: welcome back. as "america reports" rolls into a second hour, i am sandra smith in new york and john, great to be back with you. >> john: good to have you, sandra, i am john roberts in washington. we will talk to that mom who says the union harassed her for asking basic questions. she is now fighting for air know my parents rights in education. we begin with this fox news alert. >> many of the breadcrumbs lead to the lab where very few actually lead to nature, if any. if we don't do it, no one will. >> sandra: that was the chairman of the house covid origin committee, he joined us last hour, right after the committee's first hearing wrap. he says it looks like all roads lead to a lab leak but some democrats, including the white house, are not buying it. they say the evidence remains

inconclusive. >> john: that hearing comes just days after emails reveal that dr. anthony fauci pushed a scientific paper meant to disprove the theory. so what do the government top doctor really know about covid origin? >> they got caught supercharging viruses and an unsecured chinese lab. >> what was dr. fauci doing? he was trying to cover his backside and everybody knows it. >> sandra: arkansas republican senator tom cotton is ready to sound off on all of that in just a moment. by the way, the senate grilled over top intel chiefs on this today, as well. >> john: plus, the state department delivering a major travel warning for those thinking of taking a trip to mexico. that is where four kidnapped americans were held captive and tortured for days and only two of them came home alive. >> sandra: now there are growing calls to crack down on those cartels and even take military action. let's get right to david spunt live at the justice department. what are you hearing, david? >> sandra, we heard there is increasing pressure for u.s. officials to actually designate

these mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. this after that tragedy that happened just a few days ago. we have a piece of video that is really chilling to watch, it shows the four americans who crossed over the border, one for a medical procedure, being taken out of their white minivan and thrown into the back of a truck. today, the head of the cia, director of national intelligence, and fbi director all pressed on what to do about drug cartels in mexico. watch. >> what additional authorities, what additional resources, do we need to defeat this threat to american lives? some have suggested that they should be designated a foreign terrorist organization. >> one of the things i have learned in the two years i have been there is that we do not have as deep a bench of analysts on these issues, and we are not as, therefore, resourced as we need to be in order to really address this question, that is something we have been building and that is something we need to continue to build.

>> okay, sandra, former attorney general bill barr says more needs to be done by the united states. watch here. >> well, they are terrorists. i think there is another hostage and that is the mexican government. the mexican government is being held hostage by tens of thousands of paramilitary members of terrorist organizations that effectively control mexico. it's pretty close, at this stage, to a failed narco state. >> to try to remedy this growing problem, senators lindsey graham and john kennedy both introducing legislation to not only announce these cartels and designate them as foreign terrorist organizations come up with and potentially send in the u.s. military to stop them. the white house being very noncommittal of if the president would sign off on that, sandra. >> sandra: david spunt live at the justice department for us. david, thank you. >> has gain-of-function stopped a pandemic, in your opinion? >> no come on the contrary, i think it probably caused the greatest pandemic our country

has ever seen. >> john: dr. robert redfield giving a damaging and damning assessment of gain of function resources. absolutely believes the wuhan institute of virology used that method in its lab. mark meredith is at the white house and has more on this. still no answers from the white house on where covid came from, mark? >> john, they say the intelligence community is still investigating. the clip from dr. redfield shows what he and so many other researchers say, which is important for the u.s. and other countries worldwide to either pause or take steps to prevent any potential accidents with this gain-of-function research and today both he and lawmakers were still talking about where covid may have come from peer of all of these experts saying they still have plenty of ideas but still no firm answers or somewhere else. >> the question of pandemic origins remains open, but there can be no doubt that a research-related origin remains

a very serious possibility, if not a distinct probability. there is no smoking gun proving the laboratory origin hypothesis, but the growing body of circumstantial evidence suggests a gun that is at very least warmed to the touch. >> china has repeatedly dismissed the possibility of the lab leak theory, even calling it an attempt to discredit the communist country, and at the start of today's hearing, experts testified china could clear up a lot of confusion here if they were to be more forthcoming about what they knew and when, instead they say china took great steps to block the world from learning how covid first spread. now the white house as investigation to covid origin remains ongoing even as federal agencies like the fbi say they believe the lab leak theory is most likely. urged patients as the investigation into the intelligence community about what they learned remains ongoing. >> i want the facts, but i hope and say to my colleagues on the other side, we cannot go down a

dangerous path by pushing unfounded conspiracies about dr. fauci and other long serving career public health officials. >> dr. fauci was not at today's hearing. he told "the new york times" he was not on the invite list. it is certainly possible he could attend future hearings. there has been a lot of talk about him, providing more context about what he learned when he was in government service and recently spoke to "the boston globe," john, and fauci said it is still possible in his view we may never know for sure where this virus first originated. john? >> john: yeah, he has said that a couple of times now, which seems to be odd. he would think the former chief virologist of this nation would want to turn over every stone to figure out where this came from. mark meredith for us at the white house. sandra? >> sandra: republican senator tom cotton joining us now. senator, i cannot imagine that sits well with the american people, being told you know what? maybe we will never get to the bottom of this. >> yeah, sandra, i think most americans can follow the facts and common sense and conclude this virus almost certainly came

from those labs. it is unfortunate that you still have so many biden administration officials who refused to acknowledge that fact. we heard it today from intelligence officials who continue to beat around the bush, even though the fbi has said very clearly, they think it almost certainly came from a lab. recently that affirmative energy intelligence did so, as well. because they do not want to face up to the facts. the biden administration does not want to acknowledge this virus almost certainly came from those labs because they do not want to take the actions the american people would expect them to come and things like revoking china's most favored nation status or banning tiktok or banning chinese bash know my nationals from buying farm ld in america. common sense to its logical conclusion. >> john: y anthony fauci, in the early days of the covid pandemic, 2020, pushed to have this assessment done on the origins of covid. your colleague senator rand paul

from kentucky who has gone toe-to-toe with fauci had this to say. >> it was an elaborate cover-up and it began in january of 2020. the reason dr. fauci didn't want any attention drawn to this or to his funding of the lab is ultimately he would have culpability, ultimately, there is a responsibility. >> john: senator, if it is ultimately found that u.s. taxpayer dollars, through some circuit is processed, got to the wuhan lab and did find gain-of-function research, what, in your estimation, should happen? >> i think rand paul is onto something. it dr. fauci went into overdrive to suppress conversation about the possibility the virus came from the labs because of his deep ties and relationships to people at those labs were in the chinese public health bureaucracy or funding that his organization at the nih was granting, even against the

direction of the obama administration, going back to 2014 peer i think tony fauci has a lot of explain to do and i suspect he is going to be explaining to congress very soon. >> sandra: you just reference the senate intel hearing today. obviously, you are a member of. you just referenced the testimony from it. we have some of what came from some of the interactions in that room. i will have that for you in just a second. what would you say you were hearing from lawmakers about how far they are willing to go with this? if indeed anthony fauci was not transparent on what he knew and when he knew it, what is the plan to hold him accountable? real quick, here is the sound from that testimony you just referenced? >> will we not be able to say that we believe the lab origin is the likeliest outcome unless somehow we can provide a smoking gun proof that that is what happened? >> that would change essentially elements, perspectives, it would be additional information. >> i just don't understand why

you continue to maintain on behalf of the intelligence community that these are two equally plausible explanations. they simply are not. >> i share your frustration with the fact that china has not been more cooperative on this issue to provide intelligence that would be of use to the scientists. >> sandra: i mean, why are we here today, senator? why is this taking so long? when we hear from so many members of congress that they know definitively that dr. anthony fauci knew other things, that they know definitively that this virus came from that lab, so why are we here in this moment today? >> sandra, i think it is a mix of reasons. tony fauci and the public health or accuracy are trying to cover their tracks in direct violation of what the obama administration directed. second, i think the biden administration at the highest reaches, president biden

himself, do not want to reference in this virus in all likelihood came from those labs because they do not want to be forced to take tough action against chinese communists. third, it is political going back to the early beginnings of this pandemic. and donald trump or any other republican was saying these kind of things, then they wanted to oppose it, whatever it was. the fact this virus almost certainly came from labs is just another example. >> john: congressmen, want to change gears a bit and ask about this incident down in matamoros, mexico, in which two americans were killed, one severely wounded and the other seems to be okay and is in a hospital in brownsville, texas. the big question is what do we do about these drug cartels? your colleague senator lindsey graham of south carolina a short time ago said he believes they should be declared foreign terrorist organizations. here is what he's had. >> if it were an isis or al qaeda cell in mexico that lobbed a rocket into texas, we would wipe them off the planet. they are doing that times thousands.

>> john: your military career, senator, you went after al qaeda and isis. what should we do about the cartels? >> well, john, it is a terrible news story about the loss of two american lives and other two wounded. lindsey graham is right, though, we are losing 100,000 americans everything clear to drug debts, almost exclusively because of mexican drug cartels. the question posed to me a lot from arkansans and i always turn around to the question to them, i will do it to your viewers, as well, if isis and al qaeda have set up shop in juarez or monterey or tijuana, what would you expect your government to do? if they were killing 100 thousands of americans a year? whatever that is, that is exactly what we should do to them in mexico. with or without the mexican government. we have a long history of our military protecting us, these threats, drug traffickers and narco terrorists. we toppled an entire government in panama in 1989 because of drug trafficking. it is well known that special operation forces were present in

columbia 1993 when pablo escobar was killed, it is well known they were present a few years back when el chapo was arrested in mexico. if the mexican will not or cannot stop these cartels from killing hundreds of thousands of americans, then america should. >> sandra: real quick follow-up there, senator. i know you have done so much work on this and so much digging into this. i brought up the money trail last hour as far as those cartels and the money they have, we know they are here and killing americans on american soil, as well. what can you tell us about our ability to track the massive amounts of money that they are bringing in? and they are bringing it here and many times, you see these arrests happen quite frequently, money laundering right here in the united states, do we have a money trail on these cartels here in the united states? >> sandra come over the last 20 years of the war with al qaeda and isis and other foreign terrorist organizations,

we have developed incredible abilities to track illicit money and money laundering. we can use those same tools against the cartels, just like we can use the same surveillance tools are used to track down people like usama bin laden, here we need to track down cartel leaders, as well, it simply takes leaders in washington who are committed to protecting american people from this great threat. >> john: the pressure is rising. we will see if the biden administration is prepared to react. senator, thanks for talking with us. >> sandra: thank you, senator come appreciate it. >> john: when you put it in the national security perspective, the threat to this country and of the number of americans who died from the drug trade, it is so much more than it was in the past and it really does raise this. >> sandra: and this idea sort of snipping away at them rather than getting to the root of the problem, that is where lawmakers like lindsey graham are going with this bigger discussion we are now having, john. >> john: it is clear what happened from the video what happened in matamoros. they were right in the middle of the street doing whatever they

wanted. wasn't too long ago the people talked about him running for president. these days, mayor pete is more concerned with explaining what went wrong and why he is not to blame. first, the li delays over the holidays, the glitch the crowded all of the flights for the first time since 9/11. >> sandra: than the toxic train disaster in east palestine, accusations for the transportation secretary did too little, too late. >> john: so has it become clear that the former small-town mayor was in over his head in a cabinet post? that's what byron york thanks. why he says mayor pete peaked at his last job and his political future could be gone for good. >> you know, the government has all of these agencies. if they do not respond to the situation like this, why do we have them? and likely, they deserved -- in the case of the deferment of transportation, it is not well-led right now. ♪ ♪

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>> john: the airline industry making headlines for all of the wrong reasons in the past two weeks as a handful of incidents from coast-to-coast are raising questions over why america's skies have become so chaotic under the biden administration. >> sandra: just this week, there is word turbulence killed a former obama administration official. dana hyde, seen here in this photo, was flying with her family to virginia on a private jet and died when turbulence violently threw them around in the cabin. severe turbulence last week forced a lufthansa jet to land outside washington. passengers were wheeled off that plane. seven had to be taken to the hospital. >> john: on sunday, united airlines passenger exploded with a rage when a flight attendant confronted him for trying to open the jets emergency door.

>> i will kill every man on this plane! so where are they at! where is homeland security! >> john: the man is accused of trying to stab a flight attendant with a shiv he fashioned from a spoon. >> sandra: also, from boston, the wings of two united airlines jets collided on the tarmac. it happened just two days ago, that is the same airport where private jet took off in the path of a jetblue flight, forcing the jetblue pilot to suddenly climb to avoid a crash. >> john: and on sunday, panic on a southwest flight after smoke filled the cabin. >> sandra: a southwest flight to fort lauderdale reported a bird strike that caused the engine to catch fire. filling the cabin with smoke before returning to land in pavano. >> john: last week, smoke filled the cabin of a spirit

airlines flight to orlando when a battery caught fire in a passengers overhead luggage. transportation secretary pete buttigieg grapples with the chaos in america's airports, he is also dealing with criticism or last month's horrific chemical train derailment in ohio. he is now admitting he was slow to respond to the disaster after waiting nearly three weeks to visit the site. it is the latest headache for buttigieg, whose two-year tenure as a cabinet secretary has been marred by crisis after crisis, turning what some saw as a stepping-stone job to the presidency into a potential career ender. our byron york writes that buttigieg's blunders are a clear indication that he is in over his head. joining us now to explain his byron york, "washington examiner" chief political correspondent and fox news contributor. here is what you rode about mayor pete. the peter principle suggests that peter buttigieg at just 41 years of age has already risen to his level of incompetence. it is fair to say many democrats

did not expect the rising start to peek so soon and buttigieg himself certainly did not come up and moving up has its risks and unfortunately for himself and for the nation, buttigieg has found a job he cannot no, his previous job. >> there are some people who are not happy with the job he did there. back in the '60s there was something called a peter principle, a business and panelist professor, lawrence jay peter, and the idea was in a big corporation, you are an employee, you do well, you get promoted, and your next job, higher level of responsibility, you do well and you get promoted, and then you get promoted one more time and you finally hit a job that is beyond your abilities. you don't do it very well. you don't get promoted. and that is where you stay. so the whole organization is filled with people who are in jobs that they are not competent to do, that is called rising to your level of incompetence. pete buttigieg wanted to be

president of the united states. he wanted to go from being a two-term mayor of south bend, indiana, to being president of the united states. he won the iowa caucuses but did not win the democratic nomination. obviously, in 2020. so joe biden makes him secretary of transportation, he is clearly a rising star, and this gives him national experience, running a big organization come about 58,000 employees at the transportation department, and it just hasn't gone very well. >> john: there are people who say that is not a particularly difficult portfolio to have, either, in terms of cabinet secretaries. does not like state, not like the defense department. >> perhaps not the most challenging, but look at the things that have been happening lately. that was a pretty scary introduction you had here. all of those things going wrong with the aviation system, the train derailment, you know, we have had so many stories post-covid about workforce problems, about people keeping employees come about getting the

best employees, them leaving, that is going to take place in the transportation business, as well, and that is a challenge. >> john: so even though he has had all of these problems, the other day, vanderbilt university as part of the clinton global initiative, hillary clinton to the question and answer with mayor pete in which she lavished him with praise. listen here. >> when you read about your biography, your accomplishments, you are often described as a trailblazer. you are the first openly gay cabinet member, the youngest person to ever hold the office of secretary of transportation, one of the youngest people to make a serious bid for the presidency. >> john: when you read about your biography, your accomplishments, what was missing from the lavish praise with any accomplishments. he checks boxes well but does he get anything done? >> the first thing hillary clinton mentioned in that is the fact that he is gay

and he has a spouse and they have adopted children and he has taken extensive political leave. it is kind of checking off democratic policy priority, identity boxes. that indeed was a lot of his appeal. we should say -- look, he is a very smart guy, went to harvard, a rhodes scholar, in the u.s. military, served a deployment in afghanistan. so some of these other boxes that candidates check off sometimes, he does, as well. but you are absolutely right. what is missing in their is taking a large organization and turning it around. what is missing is guiding a large department like the transportation department, through a crisis, through a supply chain crisis, the southwest air meltdown, through this ohio train derailment. there just wasn't any mention of actual performance there. >> john: well, interesting, you have written on this. good to see you, byron,

thank you. >> sandra: always good to see if i ran. some disturbing new video, meanwhile, a mob of teens seen here wreaking havoc at a restaurant, flipping tables and completely trashing the place. wait until you hear how much it will be costing that restaurant owner. >> john: plus, we are keeping an eye on the markets after the fed warned the next interest rate hike could be even higher than previously thought. chairman jerome powell is on capitol hill again today defending his controversial plan to fight inflation. fox business is larry kudlow has got some thoughts on all of this and he is coming up next. >> without price stability, the economy does not work for anyone, in particular, without price stability, we will not achieve a sustained period of labor market conditions that benefit all. ♪ ♪ mara, are you sure you don't want -to go bowling with us tonight? -yeah. no. there's my little marzipan! [ laughs ] oh, my daughter gives the best hugs! we're just passing through on our way to the jazz jamboree. [ imitates trumpet playing ]

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i'm christine mahon. i'm retired from public health nursing and from the army reserve. my retirement funds allow me to enjoy what i love to do. i volunteer with the medical reserve corp. as long as you can make an impact, why stop? >> john: utter chaos and disrespect caught on camera at a restaurant in queens new year's,

a mob of teenagers ransacking the seafood joint over the weekend, flipping over tables, breaking chairs while diners and staff looked on helplessly. the owner of the restaurant says it is going to cost $20,000 to put the plates back together. alexis mcadams joins us now with the latest. they still have not caught the kids responsible, alexis? >> hi john. still had not caught the suspect, one of the reasons, their faces were covered with covid masks and hoodies as they destroyed everything they could get their hands on. watch this. and you can see there are about 20 teens creating chaos at that restaurant in queens. it happened on saturday night, the group flipped over tables, chairs, and broke pretty much everything in sight. they didn't steal anything but that does not make the owner feel much better. they left behind $20,000 worth of damage at this small business. thankfully, no one was hurt but the diners and staff were visibly shaken.

they called 911 and handed over the cell phone video you are looking at which is now key evidence in this case. the attack by the masked teens comes as the mayor of new york city is now requesting that the public lower their face masks as they come into businesses across new york. the city believes this will help reassure owners that those people are not trying to hide their identity, just to commit a crime here after this incident, the owner of this restaurant on board. >> i think it is important, people come in, as a member of the general public, they try to be welcoming and show their face, i think the owners and managers here would be supportive of that. >> not a bad idea, but a couple of restaurants in a tough spot. violence among teens is not a new problem, just last year, around 20% of robbery suspects under the age of 18. john, the mayor of new york says he is working to address the ongoing issue of team violence as police are trying to track this group down, john. >> john: see if alvin bragg does anything about it.

doubtful. alexis mcadams, thank you. >> although inflation has been moderated in recent months the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go. it is likely to be bumpy. as i mentioned, the latest economic data have come in stronger-than-expected, which suggests the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated. >> more rate hikes on the horizon was the him there, and that is what you are hearing from federal reserve chairman james powell, what the potentially need to do to try to chain inflation in this country, taking a tougher tone on the economic outlook to bring down those prices. the question is will they ever come down and will we ever get to the 2% target? let's bring in larry kudlow, host on fox business. same old, same old, you said in the background. basically keep raising rates to get the prices down? >> can i say, i actually agree with him about raising rates.

pulling more excess cash. but, it is a big but, the reasoning is wrong. he should not be telling the country that i have to do this, raise rates, because the economy is too strong. he should say, i have to do this because inflation is too strong. because prices are rising. his mandate is not to fine tune the economy. even though i know the all-powerful fed thinks that is what it is supposed to do. makes a big difference. you know, working families, blue-collar people, pipe fitters, god knows who -- >> sandra: they are paying for the policy mistakes that led to this inflation. >> they hear this and say, why are you crushing my livelihood? why? but he says to them, it is because prices are rising too fast, like grocery prices and food prices and electricity prices and utility prices, they know that, and they might

actually understand that. if he would say, the faster we get this done, you are real wages will start going up again. they have been going down for two years, actually 4% below the trend line pre-covid, that kind of thing. it is how he phrases that that is so typically federal reserve. let's slam the economy. let's slam all businesses. >> sandra: but that is the goal, though. >> no! no, it shouldn't be the goal. >> sandra: historically, major economic pain -- >> no! >> sandra: all right, set me straight. catching me out here. >> [laughs] look, i have been through periods in my time with very strong economic growth and very low inflation. can i? >> sandra: reference a moment -- >> jfk, after his tax cuts, jfk had an economy 5.5% for seven or

eight years, the inflation rate was. ronald reagan, after the bad jimmy carter in recession, inflation, reagan with his tax cuts and deregulation and so forth, 5.5% economy for seven years. actually, some people would say the economy grew for two decades with virtually no inflation. trump's tax cuts was followed by less than 2% inflation and a boost in economic growth. this theory that the phillips curve and too many people are working and we don't want workers to have high wages is nonsense. >> sandra: a bad message. >> it has been proven time and time again it is not true. we have had 25 years of stagnation, for heaven's sake, it is time to grow the economy. what jay powell should say, i have to do this because prices are rising, not because the economy is rising. >> sandra: but wait -- >> secondly, you know what -- >> sandra: i rarely disagree with you but i don't understand how you bring down prices if you don't inflict pain so people

aren't spending? >> you pull excess cash out of the economy. >> sandra: okay. >> number one. point number two. get the federal government to spend less, lower taxes, not raise them. you see biden's raising taxes across the board in his new budget, he thinks that is going to solve medicare and everything else and it won't, it is going to damage the economy, and stop over regulating and strangling the economy. in two years, joe biden has put up over 500 new regulations, causing something in the order of $500 billion to destroy business. what you want to do is grow the supply side of the economy. more goods put out there. and then drain cash so you have less money, chasing more goods -- >> sandra: okay. >> what happens here, i have the same amount of money, you and i, same amount of money. we want to buy apples. all right? all of a sudden, a bunch of new

apples come on the market. we have the same money. what happens? the price goes down. all of a sudden, all of those new apples go away, what happens? the price goes up. the point is, money should be stable, excess cash, take it out, i think that job is pretty much done. on the supply side, on the investment side, on the productivity side, that is where the problems are, and senator john kennedy told me last night, it was pretty good, he said jay powell, here, you've got to stop spending. overspending is one of the biggest problems here. overspending, in some sense, the root cause of inflation the last few years. senator kennedy says, well, jay powell needs to go on amazon and buy himself a spine, so he can go -- >> sandra: wow! >> and actually say to members of congress, stop spending. that is what i want. lower prices and raise growth. produce more apples, sandra, and prices will come down.

>> sandra: honey crisp, please. >> [laughs] >> sandra: you know what, larry, that makes total sense. >> people don't think of it that way. >> sandra: i don't know my 2% is the target, i don't know if we can get there, maybe with growth. i've got to go. larry, we will see you at 4:00 on svn. john? >> john: sandra, a mom says she is being targeted by her local teachers union, even becoming a target of their secret meetings, all for daring to ask what her 5-year-old daughter is being tat in schools. that mom, nicole solas, joins us coming up with. ♪ ♪ :onthly payments? pay off your high-payment car loan with an affordable home loan from newday and save hundreds every month. there are no upfront fees to apply. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ with skyrizi, most people who achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months... had lasting clearance through 1 year.

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>> they preach the supremacy of the state. declare its omnipotence over individual man to predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth.

they are the focus of evil in the modern world. >> sandra: that come of course, is president ronald reagan speaking on the fight between democracy and communist dictatorship, exactly 40 years ago today. >> john: remember, his famous evil empire speech, the soviet union's plans dominant the world order, might work well today if you change the subject line to china. >> sandra: a less remember part of that famous speech might sound eerily familiar to a another debate that is raging today. >> sandra: isn't it the parents right to give counsel and advice to keep their children from making mistakes that may affect their entire lives? [applause] many of us in government would like to know what parents think about this intrusion in their family government. we are going to fight the right of parents and the rights of family over those of washington bureaucrats and social engine. [applause]

>> sandra: parents rights and what their children were learning in school was just as pressing an issue four decades ago today. back then, it was schools providing birth control behind parents facts. >> john: these days, some schools are accused of keeping parents in the dark about much more than that. our next guest is a mom who says she tried to find out what her daughter was being taught and it made her a target of the local teachers union. nicole solas joins us now. nicole, you incurred the wrath of your local teachers unions, national education association, what was it that you wanted to know? >> well, i had the audacity of asking my school for the curriculum and asking if they taught gender ideology and critical race theory. my school told me to submit public records requests to get that information. they refused to answer me on the phone or through email. and so, i did what my school told me to do. i submitted the public records request, and then michael school district threatened to sue me for cementing those requests,

and then the teachers union did file a lawsuit against me to bully me and harass me with litigation and preventing public information from coming out of my public records request, so they have been targeting me for almost two years now, and i have evidence they were targeting me before they sued me and they are still harassing me after they sued me on social media. >> sandra: you wouldn't know any of this unless these presentation slides condemning you at this secret meeting were leaked by a teacher, right, nicole? >> that's correct. i had a teacher in my school district leaked slides to me were in middle school math teacher cut and pasted pictures of me for a slides in a teachers union meeting with 250 teachers, and they are painting me like i am some criminal, putting me on the screen of a zoom meeting. you just have to think, how many opportunities were missed for this middle school math teacher to stop and think, oh, maybe i shouldn't cut and paste a picture of a mom because that looks like, i don't know, a

little crazy. these are the antics behind the scenes of the teachers union. they act like psychopaths, zeroing in on a target. this should be very eye-opening for parents in america. we need these teachers unions out of our schools. in the meantime, what we can do is advocate for school choice because that will break the choke hold at the teachers union and public education. call your legislators and say that you will not vote for them without school choice. >> john: so, nicole, let me come back to what you set up the start, that you wanted to know what was in your daughter's kindergarten curriculum, and you were told by the school board to submit a public records request in rhode island as the access to public records act. here is what one of those slides presented at that teachers union meeting said. under the heading of "attack on public education" and your photograph, it said, "nicole solas' 200 plus access to public records act requests have crippled our district by asking for detailed information like months of educated emails on select items, part of a well courted effort from outside groups with outdated thinking,

but want to push for inaccurate lessons to fuel division." were you trying to do any of that? or you just wanted to know what your daughter was being taught? >> no, they lied and that slide. they said i was part of some outside group. i was just a mom doing what my school told me to do. they told me so to submit a lick record requests. they knew i had questions because i have an email from the school district, i had no political experience, not a trained activist, i was just a stay-at-home mom doing what my school told me to do, and then my teachers union treated me like i was an enemy of the state with this slide. >> sandra: have you had other parents reach out to you, nicole? >> oh, yeah, i had a lot of support. i even met another parent in rhode island who was threatens to be schooled by the same teachers union, so i'm starting to see a pattern of harassment by this teachers union. i have another parent in oregon who contacted me and said their local teachers union threatened to sue them to suppress their criticism of the teachers union. i think there's a something we

have to start looking at, how teachers unions are targeting parents who dared to challenge their radical agenda and who also just dared to ask what they are learning in school because there are parents who don't even know the indoctrination that is going on, they just want to know what they are learning and they are getting attacked for that. >> john: yep, it is going to be a big issue in 2024, i think you're clinical, great to talk to you. >> sandra: nicole, thank you for joining us. best to you. and john, we will be right back. did you know it took our founders 116 days to debate and draft the u.s. constitution? turns out they didn't trust the printing of paper money, but they did trust gold and silver. article 1, section 10. gold and silver. good for the founders, good for me, good for you. rosland capital - is a trusted leader in helping people acquire precious metals. gold bullion, lady liberty gold and silver proofs, and premium coins, can help you preserve your wealth. call rosland capital to receive your

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>> john: that was a great afternoon. great to have you back. >> sandra: great to be back, john. i feel very blessed to be back. and yeah, that was quite an interview. a lot of parents when they speak out, they fear retaliation. it's important to cover it. >> john: parents rights and education is a big topic. >> sandra: i'm sandra smith. >> john: and i'm john roberts. "the story" with martha starts right now. >> martha: good afternoon, everybody. i'm martha maccallum in new york. so the mother of tae mcgee, on the left-hand side of your screen there, says her daughter watched her two close friends die in mexico. american citizens caught in cartel crossfire and they were moved from one place to another and then two of them were shot and killed in front of the other two. it was not far across our southern border. it's believed the killers were