>> i've been feeling sick to my stomach all day after that moment . thankfully uva, we can bask in the glow of the national championship a couple years back championship a couple years back that's it tonight.u rememberfo, it is america and i is now and forever. greg gutfeld and the gang take it from here. >> todd: a fox news alert, our banking system is sound, that is the message from the treasury secretary as biggest banks in america jump in to rescue first republic bank. you are watching "fox and friends first" on friday morning. i'm todd piro. >> ashley: and i'm ashley strohmier. contradicts what was said yesterday when j.p. morgan, bank of america and five others invested their own money to calm panic. janet yellen offered more

assurance thursday that u.s. banks are safe and sound and we doubt the treasury secretary believes it, certainly nobody else does. the more the biden administration admits banks are okay, the more markets get nervous. >> todd: alexandria hoff live with more. >> alexandria: stock futures are mixed following first republic bank being dealt a rescue package from nearly a dozen other banks. they came from the likes of 1 to 5 billion from bank of america, j.p. morgan, goldman sachs, morgan stanley, in an effort to stabilize the market and pull first republic bank. this reflects their confidence in the banking system, together we are deploying strength and liquidity into the larger system, where it is needed most.

america's largest banks stand united to support the economy and those around us. treasury secretary janet yellen was behind the deal, her testimony came just a day after u.s. regulators took emergency action to contain silicon valley bank. janet yellen said broader financial panic is not necessary. >> i can reassure the members of the committee that our banking system is sound. americans can feel confident their deposits will be there when they need them. this week demonstrates our resolute commitment to ensure that our financial system remains strong and that depositor savings remain safe. no taxpayer money is being used or put at risk with this action. >> alexandria: an attorney who specializes in financial regulatory law says the fdic is ignoring other stability routes. irony is they are making big

banks bigger by refusing to do normal things you do in this situation. the most normal thing is you would arrange for a shotgun wedding, a merger of a stronger partner. the hostility of the far extremist left to bank mergers is off the charts. >> alexandria: just before silicon valley bank went under, the ceo greg becker crashed out 3.5 million in stock. he is now hiding away in hawaii in a 3 million dollar townhouse. back in washington, president biden will head to the white house for friends of ireland lunch. kevin mccarthy will be there, too. >> todd: pressing secretary yellen over president biden's lack of social security plan in his recent budget proposal. >> why doesn't the president care? >> he cares deeply.

>> where is his plan? >> he stands ready to work with -- >> that's a lie, when a bipartisan group of senators requested to meet with him about social, we have not heard anything on our request and we've made multiple requests to meet with the president. that is a fact. if you have been told to stand ready to meet, i will tell you there is no evidence because we have not gotten our meeting. >> todd: biden's plan is considered dead on arrival. and a second suspect in the murder of microsoft executive charged. mario fernandez was former landlord of the first person charged back in january for the slaying. the ex remains a suspect at the time. the 33-year-old was gunned down

in front of his daughter while moving a tire blocking the road. it happened in a suburb of jacksonville beach. investigators will be orchestrated by more than one person and fernandez is tied to the man. the ex wife remains a suspect in the killing. >> ashley: five recover ing, police found all the women unk, lips and hands blue. all but one was rushed to a hospital. authorities are investigating where the fentanyl came from and how they ended up with it. three women are in the hospital in serious condition. to the crisis at the southern border, new cbp data shows shocking number of migrants are on the fbi's terror watch list. >> todd: alex vogel here with

more. anita. >> couple days ago chief of u.s. border patrol admitted america does not have operational control over the southern border and we are learning more and more suspected terrorists are slipping into the country. so far this fiscal year, 69 people on the terror watch list crossed into the u.s. and the number of known terrorists has been climbing since 2021 when president biden took office. since october 1, 900,000 illegal immigrants have been apprehended coming from 147 different countries with 385,000 known gotaways and now top democrats are speaking out about it. >> the border is a crisis, it's been a crisis for my entire time in office. it's a challenge for border patrol and cbp to do their job to secure the southern border. it is not secure.

my attitude is to listen to the professionals and border patrol, guys on the ground who deal with this every single day. >> real tragedy in west texas, a grandmother and her grand daughter were both killed after a human smuggler crashed into their car in the small town of ozona. the driver of this silver truck was fleeing police while smuggling 11 illegal immigrants. he sped through a red light and crashed into this red light killing the grandmother and her granddaughter. the smuggler was a u.s. citizen from louisiana, had a loaded gun and he is still hospitalized. the death of that grandmother and granddaughter, such a tragedy. back to you. >> todd: the picture hit us so hard, such a tragedy and so senseless, a family ruined

unnecessarily. head of central command telling senate armed services committee, major isis groups could potentially attack the u.s. or europe in the next six months. michael corilla said the attack will be hard to accomplish if isis follows through with said plan. it is my commander assessment they can do this abroad in under six months with little to no warning. it is harder to do that against a homeland. >> todd: the general did not say why he assessed the willing to strike, he says the growth is indication they are strong enough to extend reach of their attack. this is following the botched withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan in august 2021 when 13 military members and hundreds of afghans were killed.

>> ashley: pentagon does not expect to find the drone that was taken down by russia as they scower the black sea to recover it. >> it is unlikely given a couple fact are ones and i will not go into detail. we took steps to protect that information and it crashed in extremely deep water. >> todd: a strategic military intel analyst joins us live on set. great to see you, rebecca. if that is true and there is nothing left of sensitive value, why is russia so eager to get his hands on it? >> the russian intention was never to get their hands on sensitive information, it was pure harassment. the russians rammed the drone. it wasn't a collision, it wasn't accidental. the idea was to telegraph to the

united states that russia is ready to ratchet up this conflict into the next rung on the escalation ladder. putin fears ukraine will potentially try to take crimea back, that the russians are next, back in 2014 and that is a red line for him. this is why it is putin's playbook to harass, intimidate in order to show his macheese mow, that is the guy. >> ashley: are you saying you don't think russia wants anything to do with the drone in particular, you think it is harassment tactics? is that what i'm hearing? >> yes, right now the wreckage is too deep, it is about 1500 meters down, the depth of the black sea is about 21 -- sorry, 2200 meters, that is too deep,

the drivers can't withstand this type of pressure. the russians are claiming they will try to recover it, this is for optics. the idea again is to signal strategic message and this is not the last time it is going to upon ha. the russians do it all the time, they buzz airplanes and ships and the russians fly stra edge too -- strategic next to ours. this is quite typical. the question is, how close are we going to get to the point where we are in direct war, right now we are in a proxy war. how do we get into a shooting war? war gaming showed us in the intelligence community we conducted war games, red on blue, and every single time, the road to war between russia and the u.s. is this type of

accident, unintentional escalation. both sides understand the stakes are high, neither russia nor the united states want a direct war, but we might accidentally walk into it. >> todd: and you really hope the back channels we don't hear about are open so lines of communication can be approached if a situation like a mistake arises, we don't want world war iii. poland announcing they will send fighter jets to ukraine. politico reporting companies have sent russian entities and other equipment to be used for military purposes, including drone parts and body armor between june and december of last year. isn't this part of their new plan or their plan to keep us distracted so we don't interfere with their approach, i don't want to say world domination,

but trying to replace us? >> absolutely, the chinese are not interested in the end of this are wa. in fact, they are highly incentivized in prolonging it for as long as possible. why? they are watching their top two political rivals and according to the chinese, adversaries, depleting their own military arsenals fighting each other in a proxy war. there is famous chinese proverb, wise monkey sitting atop the mountain and uch waing the two tigers ferociously fighting each other to see who is going to win. another reason, as long as we focus on ukraine, the united states, then china can do whatever it wants with regard to taiwan because they have concluded that we are not capable of fighting a two-front war at the same time, with

top-tier adversaries, russia and china. that is why they are continuing fuelling this war in ukraine. >> ashley: let's talk about poland sending the first fighter jets to ukraine, what does this signify to you? >> tremendously, expands the space into three dimensional battleground. so far primarily a land war is how putin wants it. this is war of attrition, which is how the russians won every war for centuries, they have a lot of people, high tolerance for casualties. they lost 25 million in the world war ii, right? they have 143 million population, which is three times more than -- more than three times ukraine's and they keep throwing people into

the meat grinder. now it is going into the airspace, this war, it will again escalate so we're trying to stand down the russians and russians are trying to stand down us, the result is this war will continue. >> todd: meat grinder, especially with world war ii, they drew germany in, come on over, it is winter time and that did not go well for the germany. chinese president xi jinping will meet with putin to discuss key topics concerning further development of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation between russia and china. i know you said that china views russia and the united states as adversaries, specifically with regard to their engaging russia like this. isn't china and xi jinping doing this because of joe biden's weakness on the world stage for

the last two years? >> it is both. strategically, china has a grand plan to dominate the world and they actually have articulated the goal by 2049, they want to displace the united states as dominant power militarily and economically. so right now he's partnering, so to speak, with putin to challenge us. yes, president joe biden is perceived as a weak president by russia and by china and this is why they feel like they can intimidate us and they can challenge us in every possible way. >> ashley: what about the timing of this meeting? it is next monday and he's supposed to be talking to zelenskyy afterward. what about the timing of this? >> xi jinping wants to play the peace maker, he is meeting with putin, will have a teleconference with zelenskyy and trying to telegraph to the

world that he is interested in having this conflict settled. right? he just had a major diplomatic victory by having iran and saudi arabia resume relations. he's portraying to the world that no, it is not the united states that can actually be the broker and the honest deal maker of peace in the world, it is actually china. underneath, there is very, very different goal and that goal is just to keep this war going because china is the biggest winner in this war. >> todd: "washington post" said it best, china is trying to rewrite the global landscape, we got to make sure they don't do that. rebecca, thank you very much. pete buttigieg getting praise from president obama's former transportation secretary over his response to the east palestine train disaster. >> i give him an a, he's done a good job. after the train wreck are

occurred, he met the people there. >> todd: do the people of east palestine agree? we'll ask them. >> ashley: we'll hear from a woman who says the major health concerns are not close to being solved. she is sick and can't get treatment, those stories next. >> this is very strange and frustrating because i wanted that test to see what my levels are, over time, in a few months, it will not be the same as it is today.

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to learn more, visit your local xfinity store today. >> todd: a san francisco reparation plan getting pushback as city officials hear several recommendations for massive payouts to black residents including paying residentses a lump sum of $5 million, debt forgiveness and guaranteed income of $97,000 for 250 years. some say the proposal is not feasible due to budget constraints. the progressive da office shuttling employees in minivans because scores of employees complain about aggressive confrontations on the way to work on l.a. public

transportation. a prosecutor in the da says george gascon's weak policies are to blame. mckinney is running to unseat george gascon, says, my heart goes out to millions of los angeles citizens who travel without the same protection. >> ashley: president obama transportation secretary is praising pete buttigieg for his handling of the train derailment in east palestine. >> i give him a a, he's been a good secretary, traveling the countrying doing what president biden wanted. he was in the community after the train wreck occurred, met with the people there. >> ashley: before we jump into all of this, i want your reaction to what you just heard from former president obama's transportation secretary giving

pete buttigieg an a on this situation? >> hi, good morning. so in my opinion, i think a catastrophic, multiple failures that happened here, especially in east palestine. it would be unwise for me to give him a rating. i would like to see him take action and implement safety regulations to avoid this happening in the future. that would be my primary stance on it, as far as politic side of it goes. i'm more focused on getting residentses of east palestine the help they need right now and that includes financial and medical. i think that is something the government needs to look at. >> ashley: that isir fa, you do live 50 miles from east palestine. you are apparently feeling symptoms. look at this video you posted on social media, it is going viral and you made concerning claims.

you wanted certain toxins tested in your blood and this is what happened. watch. >> i went in to get bloodwork done, i sat down and the gentleman said, i'm sorry to tell you this, for some weird reason, it's been discontinued. within the last month, they are not doing it. i smell something fishy and anyone hearing this is smelling something fishy, too. >> ashley: this test was eligible before you went in, have you gotten answers as to why all of a sudden you can't get this test? >> no, and i've been hitting deadends for the past couple weeks i've been digging into different labs calling across the country. i'm in the northeast right now at my parents, as you can are had, i'm still being affected by symptoms, every time there is

rain, it kicks this back up. primary concern on my end and i used to be an environmental scientist. i didn't realize this happened and i started getting symptoms that mirror covid symptoms, i went and got covid test and then i had gone on social media shortly after and saw a creator posting about the east palestine and i saw that the symptoms correlate to chemical exposure similar to being exposed to vinyl chloride and dioxen. >> ashley: how long after did you start feeling symptoms 50 miles away? >> i was driving out of the philadelphia area back up to boston and i was getting sick on the seventh and full blown on the eighth and my dog was also sick, having trouble breathing just like me and had a rash all

over his belly that i could see the rash on his belly. i was having congestion and a lot of issues with burning eyes and my dog was having issues. i thought, what happened, this can't be covid, but you wasn't sure. i got tested and was negative. a few days later, i seen it transpire on social media and realized what had happened. >> ashley: scary stuff, hope you can get answers. when your lawyer recommend you get tests and you can't get it, that leaves uncertainty for the future when you need the results. jolynn pasqualucci, thank you. and joe biden's daughter-in law-is the third member -- unpack the oversight investigation. >> todd: and lobstermen fighting

for their livelihood after a green group threatens to put them out of business, we will share their story next. is there anyone else you want to explore here, together? where do you want to go? senegal 38%, portugal 29. did you know that? i had no idea. the more you learn the more you want to know, and then it just fuels that fire. we now live in a place our ancestors have been for many, many years and we had no clue. nigerian. i got a lot of it from you. explore your family story with ancestrydna. now on sale.

>> todd: the house oversight committee revealing the name of the other member of the biden family who received a cut of the money wired from a hunter biden business associate and ventures. >> ashley: brooke singman has the latest. >> brooke: jame comer says -- in newly obtained records from bank of america, comer reveals halle received two payment, one

payment came after walker received $3 million transfer from chinese energy company called state energy hk limited. hunter biden, a private citizen with every right to do business endeavors privately owned legitimate energy company in china. comer says the transfer from walker to the bidens had one detail missing. listen. >> one thing unique about the wire transfers, each transfer is like a check, you have name, address, date, dollar amount and memo, what it is for. every other wire transfer from robinson walker had something in the memo except the one to the bidens. if they put in the memo, i might have had a better idea what money was for. >> brooke: comer wants to know

what services the bidens provided to receive that kind of money. >> they said there is a business deal, what business? they were influence pedalling, they were getting money for some type of service. i don't think hunter biden with provide the service that can generate hundreds of millions of dollars from the chinese communist party. >> brooke: they want to know why the biden family can't keep their story straight. >> in 2018, they denied doing business in china, then said we were doing business in china, we didn't make any money and then it shifted to joe biden didn't know about the deals, that has been disproven. the fact they keep shifting the story should be a major concern for people in the white house. >> brooke: the white house dismissed the findings, slamming

comer, after disgusting attack lementing the president's deceased son beau was never prosecuted, they are going after beau's widow. she was romantically involved with hunter. >> todd: the white house is not denying it, that is what peter schweizer pointed out. for years they were denying it, now they are not denying it, they are just saying republicans are mean. >> brooke: they are saying that, they are pointing to comer's past statements about beau biden. it was interesting, they said these bank transfer came from walker's could to the biden's account, we don't know if republicans were suggesting the

unknown account was president biden. hunter's lawyer said the payment went to halle, jim, hunter and no one else. i think the white house dodged answering the question. i asked their comment about the payment, they are not directly to president biden, but to another family member, for them to just comment about comer's investigation -- >> ashley: they are deflecting, always a deflecting game. the more they investigate this, the longer comer is in that seat, which it just started and makes you wonder how long this will go on, what else will we find out and how long will it take to get accountability and answers as to where this is coming from. >> brooke: absolutely. hunter has been under federal investigation for four years, we are on the fifth year, the federal investigation into tax

affairs or money laundering investigation, finding out information, that was open in 2018, it is 2023. we haven't heard a peep from the investigation, we don't know how much longer they will be conducting that. house republicans will continue to subpoena records and try to get to the bottom of this investigation. >> todd: remember that halle is school counselor. i come from a long line of educators, i do not believe any of them have received money from a chinese company, i will ask them. maine lobstermen suing group foundation for misleading buyers about their fishing practices. an attorney for the maine lobstermen association joins me now. what did the monterey bay association get intentionally wrong? >> thanks for having me, todd.

monterey bay aquarium runs seafood watch. seafood watch said they engaged in a science-based analysis investigating all available scientific data and rigorous transparent science-based process to get to the conclusion this threatened the lives of the northern white whale. neither the science nor the truth or fact support the allegations that maine lobster affect the whale, just the opposite is true. >> todd: statement from monterey bay aquarium foundation says fisheries pose serious risk to survival of the endangered north atlantic white whale.

kevin, has the lobster industry ever recorded a whale death? >> not once in history in recorded history of the events. in 2004, there was an entanglement involving maine lobster gear, that did not result in injury or death to the northern white whale. it is maine lobster fisherman practices that contributed to sustainability of the lobster fishery and of the northern white whale. lobstermen removed 30,000 miles of rope in the gulf of maine. they limited number of lobster traps, instituted weakened break-away rope that prevent entangled species to break free of the lines. the lobstermen, of their own accord, self-imposed regulation have done a great deal to contribute to the safety of the northern white whale and it

makes sense. lobstermen will stewards of the ocean and make a living by protecting the ecosystem and they are concerned, as they have been for generations about the survival of wildlife in the ocean. >> todd: this is an industry the subject of so many regulations that have made it almost impossible to survive. if something like this is out there in the ether, and people stop buying maine lobster that will affect the industry and shut down so many small businesses in maine and for the american fish consumer, you know where you will get your lobster? foreign lobster and that is not good for anybody. kevin lipson, keep up the fight, this is wrong, we appreciate you coming on to save an important industry and some great people. thank you. moving to march madness, ashley, you have your bracket? first big bracket buster of 2023 is furman university, the school had not been to the tournament

in 43 years, the paladins pulling off an upset 68-67 over university of virginia hit game-winning three with two seconds left, watch. >> the best free-throw shooter. >> watch. >> he threw it away. [cheering] >> a little bit of time. it's petman. if it goes -- furman has won! >> todd: wow, pass on the baseline. surprises didn't stop. -- beat number two seed university of arizona 59-55. >> no good. and win this thing. >> going to keep dancing >> >> the tigers of princeton quell their way into round two.

>> todd: 6200 million brackets are filled out every year, after day one 787 remain perfect. big loss to president biden who picked arizona wildcats to take home the national championship. in the president's defense, the experts picked arizona, as well, give the president a mulligan. i had arizona going into the final four. >> ashley: you must have had that one. a minnesota mom is furious her fifth grade daughter was being taught about sexting, and went to the school board about it. >> this resulted in a hostile learning environment for my daughter, who has been punished at school for being my child. >> todd: that mother says she is her daughter are facing retaliation. she is here to tell us about it next. i'm jonathan lawson

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i screwed up. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck. >> todd: new york state lowering its testing standards for students in both math and reading. many students struggle to meet the state's proficiency scores.

last year not one single eighth grader was proficient in math based on the current standards. the national assessment of education found four in 10 eighth graders fail to grasp math concepts, the lower standards will take effect next year. the mother of a student in littlefalls, minnesota says she's been prohibited from speaking to her daughter's teacher. she spoke at a school board meeting on monday, watch. >> the superintendent, greg johnson has no right for this plan on myself. this is abuse of power. my civil rights and parental rights have been violated, resulting in hostile learning environment for my daughter. she has missed recess, been kept in and segregated from class activities. >> ashley: the concerned parent

joins us now. cassie, you start poking around and asking questions about this new curriculum about teaching your kid, your 10-year-old about sexting and they ban you from communicating? what do you mean they ban you? >> i continue to ask about the curriculum and been waiting to see the -- any type of resource -- [cutting out] -- i had finally month about asking about the curriculum in class and i was -- no longer -- let us know if you are -- for the work. >> todd: want to read a letter to parents, the school social worker briefly explaining the curriculum. this year in fifth grade we expand learning to address texting, sexting, cyber bullying

and social media safety. that seems like a laudable goal. but the sixting is the issue we have questions on. we reached out to superintendent johnson. i ask that you consider this with one side being reported. the district is bound by privacy laws that prevent us from sharing information about parents and children. that is well and good, why are you being retaliated against and how are you and your daughter being retaliated against? >> so many teachers have -- on facebook saying these different types of allegations on my family and i. i have teachers telling my high school daughter things about me that i have never said -- then, i mean, it is a small town and

you get small town politics. my daughter has lost friendships and -- safe place for her to be because she -- to tell anyone -- trusted adults are not trusted when she has no one to turn to. >> todd: thank you for joining us, we apologize for difficulty with taudio. why do school boards think they have a right to keep curriculum from the parents in the first place? >> ashley: she is paying taxes on this, she said her daughter is getting in trouble almost every single day, she is losing privileges and not able to be a part of activities. she said her daughter has her hand up in class, the teacher will not call on her, she is

apparently the only child that has her hand up and is ignored, that is concerning. just asking questions. >> todd: and cassie is prohibited from attending parent-teacher conferences. you use those to learn what a child is good and nothe good at to help the child, this is sad. >> ashley: treasury secretary yellen says the banking system is sound. well then why did banks invest 30 million of their money. cheryl casone is breaking it down and general talla, and congressman greg murphy joining us on this busy friday morning. don't go anywhere.

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>> todd: a fox news alert, our banking system is sound is the message from treasury secretary janet yellen as the biggest banks in america jump in to rescue first republic bank. you're watching "fox and friends first" on friday morning, i'm todd piro. >> ashley: and i'm ashley strohmier. "wall street journal" says yellen's testimony contradicts what happened yesterday with banks invested $30 billion of their own money to calm panic. janet yellen offered more assurance u.s. banks are safe and sound and we doubt the treasury secretary believes it, no one else does. the economy and banking system are a okay when they are not, the more markets get nervous. >> todd: that is concerning from