lost a loved one. >> covenant elementary we will think about you and the entire community. blessings to you. thanks for joining us. and if you don't get to watch us live, always dvr us. we look great there, too. the conversations are just as good, and did you see kennedy's heels? you can see them there, too. all right. "america reports" now. >> john: harris, thank you. we start off with these incredible pictures from paris, france, the 11th day protests against pension reform and raising the retirement age continue, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets here to protest -- macron's age from 62 to 64, he feels he has no choice, the pension will go bankrupt, and

people growing older and better medicine keeping people alive longer, the french people say no to the plans. highest constitutional court is expecting to give a ruling next week as to whether or not the law is constitutional or whether parts of it have to be reined in. the protestors hoping to put enough pressure on the french president already survived loss of his majority in the parliament and two votes of nonconfidence to back down, scrap the plan and then everything will stay as it is right now. we'll see if that happens. >> something happened, not sure if american would come. >> right now the war between russia and, you know, ukraine, probably they would support financially but not physically, not maybe just sending missiles, that kind of thing, not really helping us. >> is it worrying to you about a possible invasion? >> sort of, but not too much. sort of, yeah.

>> john: some residents of taiwan reacting to the threat from china as we wait to hear from the white house about escalating tensions between washington and beijing. this as beijing makes a new move over the u.s. and taiwan latest round of diplomacy. chinese officials say they will inspect ships that pass through the taiwan strait. >> and china is creating a new currency as the yen surpasses the u.s. dollar as the top traded currency inside russia. should congress step in to protect the u.s. economy. debbie dingle and darryl issa will join us coming up. >> john: begin with the crime crisis sweeping the nation and the deadly toll it's taking on some communities. multiple cases across the u.s., begin in central florida where three teenage friends are dead and law enforcement is asking

the public to help sold their murders. good afternoon, john roberts in washington. friday eve what we like to call thursday around here. >> gillian: i'm gillian turner in for sandra smith. those victims were found in three separate locations about 60 miles outside orlando over the course of three days. the marion county sheriff says all three were together leading up to their deaths. he's bedunking the idea of a serial killer involved, he says it should be connected to "a wannabe gang." >> john: so far no arrests in the triple homicide, but the sheriff said that could change soon. >> we have a lot of leads. they are getting us in the right direction. i'm counting on the arrest, what i'm looking for. justice will be brought. >> john: former miami police detective will join us next hour. jonathan serrie is live in miami with more on the developing

story. what kind of progress are investigators making? >> the sheriff says he has 15 investigators assigned to the case and have both digital and physical evidence. >> the information we are receiving right now, yes, there is multiple suspects, at least the information which we are being given. >> the sheriff says there is strong information to suggest it's tied to low level poorly organized gangs. the investigation began thursday with the discovery of a 16-year-old shooting victim near a rural construction site. injuries so severe she could not speak with deputies or provide information before she died in the hospital. the victim later identified add layla silvernail had been an avid softball player, her women's tournament issued a statement saying layla was a caring young lady, amazing athlete and cherished teammate.

known for uplifting new and younger teammates and encouraging them to play hard and believe in themselves. on saturday, authorities found layla's white chevy partially submerged in a lake with the body of another victim inside, the victim was identified as 16-year-old camille coreales, and a beautiful person, interested in sports, art and fashion. they have not released the identity of a 17-year-old male whose body was found on the side of a rural road friday. the sheriff has beefed up patrols in and around these crime scenes but trying to reassure parents in the community that these were not random attacks. he believes that these crimes were a single isolated event and that his investigators will very quickly get to the bottom of it. john and gillian, back to you. >> gillian: the murder of cash

app founder bob lee on the streets of san francisco sent shock waves. a prominent tech executive and according to his family he was found stabbed multiple times. shows lee tumbling down the sidewalk calling for help before ultimately collapsing. the san francisco police chief says the investigation is ongoing. residents say something has to be done about skyrocketing crime now. >> perception is reality in san francisco, commit a crime and go through a revolving door in our criminal justice system and be out. >> gillian: san francisco has been struggling with a crime surge for more than two years now. >> john: this fox news alert, virginia's attorney general sending a letter to the d.c. city council and mayor bowser asking to work with them on crime following the horrific

murder of christie batista. the 31-year-old virginia native was killed by a repeat violent offender who broke into her d.c. hotel room and stabbed her 30 times last week. let's bring in the virginia attorney general. mr. attorney general, good to have you with us today. i've got the letter in hand that you've sent to the d.c. city council and the mayor, quote from it. you say i refuse to stand by quietly as you reject the crime spike impacting d.c. residents and visitors and commuters. your unwillingness to enforce your laws and hold violent offenders responsible put your residents and mine at risk. christie was staying not too far from where i am right now. there to attend a concert. instead, she was savagely killed by a home less man.

>> i think the first step to acknowledge there is a problem. members of d.c. city council have refused to admit there is a crime problem, murder, robbery, sexual assaults are up over 30% in the district. and a lot of people commute to work, record number of carjacking, christie was doing what so many do. go to the district to enjoy the theater, arts, and she was brutally murdered not an hour after she checked into the hotel room. and d.c.'s problem is virginia's crime problem, and the repeat violent offender arrested for armed robbery, released by a lenient judge but it's more difficult for law enforcement to do their job and point out for your viewers, the average d.c. suspect has been arrested for

first-degree murder, has been previously arrested an average of 11 prior times. so you are literally seeing a system right now in d.c. almost like a catch and release program for certain violent offenders and now tragically it's causing the citizens of virginia to suffer the consequences, acknowledge the problem, take crime seriously and go after the repeat violent offenders creating such havoc and pain for so many families losing loved ones to violent crime. >> john: you mentioned mr. attorney general she was murdered shortly after she checked into her hotel room, the timeline from security footage, checked in at about 6:00 in the evening, about 45 minutes later the perpetrator, george sidnor arrived in the hotel parking lot on a bicycle. he got off of it, went over to her door, listened at the door for a moment, and then walked in. you could hear her yelling for

help, according to an eyewitness who called 911, she apparently came to the door, screaming for help and then was pulled back inside by the perpetrator. "the new york post" observed this, this is talking about the perpetrator, he skipped out on court dates in both places, this would be d.c. and prince george's county, and authorities had sought warrants for his arrest. if he returned to d.c. court he was supposed to receive a gps monitoring device that would have been on him until his february sentencing date. he was a fugitive because he did not show up for a court date in a neighboring county. you have to wonder, how do people like this get on the streets in the first place? >> listen, the first rule of government, protect your citizen. and what we have in washington, d.c. and certain areas in the country, you have the law abiding looking over their shoulder in fear, reality should be the law breaking. she was there innocently to enjoy some of the best moments of life and have that taken away from her, and this is washington, d.c., the nation's

capital, it should be the beacon of hope and freedom for the entire world, not a place where we see headlines somebody losing their life under such horrific circumstances because they wanted to see a concert. so many elected leaders need to realize there is a problem. one of the biggest problems you have in government is people assume just because they have good intentions it will guarantee good results. you have people on city council, maybe they mean well, the real world measures what are the results. and violent crime that is gone up in washington, d.c. the last couple of years and back to the criminal first, victim last mindset, more concerned about the criminals than the victims and position of the virginia attorney general we view ourselves as the people's protector. >> john: he has a rap sheet back to 2002, and the fact the career criminals are on the streets is stunning to a lot of people who commute in from virginia like i do and people who live in the district and height of the

tourist season as well. i don't need a comment from you, but put up here, a gofundme page for christie to pay for her funeral. she is described, shining light that lifted up everyone's spirits around her, encouraged people to do things they were afraid of, and remember one small random thing you said and find any way to help. her life was ended way too short by a cruel act of violence that she did not deserve. >> amen. she was a remarkable woman. we went to the same college, and she is tragically missed. >> john: hopefully the estate will get enough money to pay for her funeral. appreciate it. gillian. >> gillian: three tennessee house democrats could be expelled in a vote. lawmakers gloria johnson, justin jones and justin pearson wanted

gun reform in the wake of the covenant school shooting. we are hearing more protests are now planned, is that right? >> it certainly is possible. heavy security around the statehouse today. there have been really arguments on both sides ratcheting up the pressure. one side, the democrats calling the republicans fascists, and they say they are trying to spur on an insurrection. rhetoric is hot and high. an attempt by the super majority to expell three democratic representatives. they blame them for a protest on the floor of the house itself. during that protest they delayed things for about 45 minutes, used a mega phone to chant with the crowd, there was a scuffle in the end between two lawmakers and follows a brutal school shooting in nashville that left six people dead, including three 9-year-old children. the protest was for gun control. democrats say the attempt to

oust three of their members is an attempt to stifle dissent. >> they acted as if it was like january 6th, it's just a lie. it was such a peaceful rally. >> republicans say it's cut and dry. the democrats, they say, broke the rules. p>> this rises to the level i believe of their actions on the house floor to be expelled. >> republicans do have enough votes, they need a two-thirds majority so they could expell these three members but it's something that happened very rarely in tennessee's history, just twice since the civil war, and all previous cases there has been an investigation, often a criminal investigation before such drastic measures are taken. back to you. >> gillian: steve, thank you. >> john: curious to see what the vote will be and reaction as well. >> gillian: comment that it is sad to see political fighting about this when it is the reality that lawmakers on both

sides of the aisle, people on both sides of the aisle across this country should be able to stand in protest of the covenant school shooting. something simple to unify around, yet people are more splintered than ever before. >> john: anger and horror and how you deal with it. property owners putting squatters on notice across the country, squatting in homes they never owned. why is it so hard to get them out? in-house paralegal in philadelphia at the front lines of the issue coming up. >> gillian: new analysis, a new threat could target nearly 5 million u.s. jobs.

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>> gillian: the white house now is bracing for tomorrow's unemployment report after data yesterday showed u.s. companies slowed hiring more than expected last month. experts were pointing to a cooler labor market combined with higher interest rates. concern is growing over openly a.i. chatgpt. 4.8 million jobs could soon be replaced by the artificial

intelligence bot. bring in our panel, doug holtz eakin, and grover norquist. gentlemen, thanks for being with us. grover, let start with you. this new report says that a.i. is most likely to replace positions that are repetitive and predictable, and steeped in language, customer service reps, translators and interpreters, technical writers, copy writers, data entry clerks. translate that into the jobs economy. >> well, we have several hundred, maybe thousands of years whenever there was a new technology coming in, people would worry that the number of jobs would disappear. when you make any sector more productive you free up resources and people to do other things.

we have a lot of unemployment in this country in other zones. it's not like if one person's job moved over they would be out of a job. there are jobs waiting for people, more jobs open than there are people for them. any increase in productive is a good idea and benefits everybody. so they told us this would happen with computers and with type writers and with machines that could make clothes instead of having people sew them themselves. >> gillian: doug, do you see it that way, or once the jobs are gone people will not be needed to fill them ever again? >> i think grover has this right. you know, we have a long history of fearing new technologies and certainly we are hearing that about chatgpt, and let's face it. if you lose your job it's a big threat. i can understand that. but in this economy, every month we have job separations, people

quit or get laid off, 5.8 million and we find jobs for the people. we don't have chronic problems getting people back to work. take advantage of the productivity from the a.i.s, we will have jobs for people. the scale of the threat is overblown. some pockets it's going to be an issue, but for the economy as a whole, it's not. >> gillian: grover, i want to flag this. a new report from the data firm but they also asked chatgpt itself where it thinks it will be likelyest to be employed in the future what the bot said about itself. it feels that it could see itself entering these fields, data science, machine learning, math and statistics, computer science, robotics and automation, and business. so if a.i. is creating the data

that is input into machines and then automating the machines themselves, i mean, where do people fit into that equation? >> the good news is, there are many, many jobs in this country. government -- look, we could be worried, we should be worried, government can mess this up, government can mess everything up. this administration, the biden administration has a war on independent contractors. they have a war on nonunionized workers that a lot of the government spending programs, yeah, yeah, not if you are not in a union and paying dues. independent contractors, they have tried to outlaw in california and nationally. if you make the labor market less fluid, then when somebody loses a job it can take longer to find a new one, the idiot government set up all the rules to make it difficult. but if the government steps back and lets people find work, then i think we'll be in much betr e independent contractors in a neighborhood near you now. >> gillian: ten seconds left,

doug, could a.i. perform my job? >> no. a.i. -- it does not show the imagination, quiztiveness, curiosity. it's a great tool for humans but not anything more than an human. >> gillian: i disagree with you, we have to leave it there. we'll get into it next time. appreciate it. thanks for joining me. >> john: not to mention gillian's sense of humor as well. back to paris, smoke in the air, protestors on the ground, lines of riot police, the 11th day now protests against president macron's proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 continue. there was a week-long garbage workers strike as well, 10,000 tons of garbage piled up. their retirement age is proposed

from 57 to 59. retire -- they retire earlier because of the physical nature of the work. but it's a real battle here between rank and file parisians and macron. the parisians saying no, we are not going to take it. and macron saying oui, you have to take it, otherwise the country will go bankrupt. >> gillian: the other side of the atlantic, rising tensions in the middle east. militants in lebanon firing rockets into israel as israeli celebrates the first day of passover. worst day since 2006. report the next hour. plus this. >> if something happened and china sent warships to taiwan, do you think america would come and help? >> no.d in europe

now. >> john: residents in taiwan fearful for their safety as china ramps up the rhetoric after the taiwanese president's trip abroad, despite warnings from the chinese communist party.

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because you didn't settle for ordinary. same goes for your equipment. durable kubota equipment. more goes into it. so you get more out of it. >> gillian: china announced it will now inspect ships that cross through the taiwan strait. the move comes as a delegation visits taiwan today and follows the taiwanese president's ten-day trip abroad to strengthen diplomatic ties with allies. included a stop in the u.s., she met with kevin mccarthy despite dire warnings out of china doing so. michigan democratic congresswoman debbie dingle will join us in a moment, but first,

aishah is on the ground in taipei. back-to-back events are not going over so well with the chinese government, are they? >> good afternoon to you. that's right. the chinese are very angry, condemning the back-to-back events, first of course the meeting with president, and taiwan discovered that there were three chinese navy ships that had encircled the island and lawmakers told us later that there were plans, the chinese had plans for the ships although they would not tell us what the plans were. now, on top of this, chinese had also announced they will stop and inspect ships in certain parts of the taiwan strait for the next three days, and that includes moves to board ships as well. the taiwanese are telling their people to refuse any such

request if they come across the chinese. chairman michael mccaul, i shouted a question and asked about the latest actions. >> calling this a soft blockade, they just announced it, any remarks on that? >> prc communist china blocking the taiwan straits, that is an act of aggression. there are three aircraft carriers surrounding the island right now, and we know that they are -- they have certain plans, whether they carry those out, i don't know. but i think it will be a very unfortunate mistake on the part of the chinese communist party. >> just clarifying he meant three ships, not three carriers. lawmakers are in taiwan, sort of carefully balancing between telling taiwan that the u.s. supports the island while also

not making any mention of sending u.s. troops. >> it is important we protect you. i know there's a lot of talk of ambiguity, but i want to make it clear the united states stands by you and will protect you. >> now, this delegation will also meet with president tsai as soon as she returns to taiwan. we'll see how china responds next. >> gillian: aishah hasnie on the ground in ty daipei. thank you. >> john: jump back to paris, things are out of hand there, 100,000 people have taken to the streets, you see a lot of smoke in the air, fires being set. we don't know if riot police who have assembled in paris are using tear gas to fend off the protestors, or if that's just smoke from fires being set. we did see pictures earlier, it

would appear to just be fires. we saw some pictures earlier of people rubbing their eyes, some irritation potentially from pepper spray. no indication tear gas is being used. but going on for the 11th straight day. and it really has affected everything that's going on in paris, including the planned visit of king charles. that had been postponed after protestors were taking to the streets and really causing such an issue, macron is looking at the math and saying there is not enough revenue from population growth to deal with the expenses of the retirement at the age of 62, people live longer, medicine is helping them do that, the only way to keep pensions there in france solvent is to raise

the age from 62 to 64. now, in a lot of countries that probably wouldn't make much of an impact in terms of the public. but in france, any time the social safety net is messed with, they tend to get very angry and they are trying to put enough pressure on macron he backs down. we should point out as well the issue was behind the highest constitutional court in the land, looking at the proposal to see whether it passes constitutional muster, whether the whole thing needs to be thrown out or just parts thrown out. protestors are hoping that at least parts of it, if not the entire thing is thrown out. but we will not see a result of that vote, gillian, until next week. >> gillian: interestingly the protestors are now targeting, we are hearing, specific financial sector institutions, invaded the

paris offices of blackrock earlier this morning, they invaded the offices there with all kinds of munitions and fire bombs and fortunately looks like nothing was detonated inside the offices but a scary moment today. this is pretty dramatic, footage, john, i struggle to remember the last time we saw this big of a crowd that looked this angry in the streets of paris in broad daylight. >> john: this level of, i guess you could say violence perpetrated by some protestors in terms of lighting fires. the typical protests we are used to in france, farmers will roll tractors down and drop manure, but taking on a whole new different tone. michigan congresswoman debbie dingle is in the studio. france is the closest ally, and you balance what's going on in france and the same arguments

here, how do you keep the social safety net solvent given the changes demographics? >> i think this is a problem worldwide. i think france has had, or many of the european countries, frankly many of the countries that we compete with in a global marketplace do have healthcare guarantee and if guaranteed, it's citizens that are safe and secure retirement with dignity when they retire. here is a reality. the baby boomers are not just americans, but they are around the world. and they are scared to death about how they are going to live, afford to have a safe place to live, put food on the table and they are making their voices heard. i suspect there may be some other people helping them organize here in paris today but you know, you've seen the intensity of emotion in this country, too, republicans made it clear they were not going to cut people's social security. 54% of the people over 50 are

helping to care for someone that is a senior. it's a real problem in the world. >> i also read just to compare western europe with the united states, on average, somebody my age, if they retire on schedule, between the ages of 65 and 68, will have input in many instances up to a million dollars into social security and now face the prospect of not recouping any of that. >> we have to. that -- people say that, but we have a responsibility as policy makers. social security has to be there for those that have paid into the system. we have serious and tough discussions to have. we have a caregiving problem right now in the country. there are not enough caregivers to take care of seniors. cheaper for seniors to stay in their own homes and in their communities than institutional settings but we have out of date systems that do not lower the

costs. >> cheaper option and as i understand what the option that vast majority -- >> what the vast majority want, a longer life, bob casey and i introduced legislation last congress to deal with this, thought we would get it over the finish line and frankly the caregiving issue has become much more serious in the last six months. >> john: the protestors know the time to put pressure on the french president, springtime in paris, a lot of tourists are going there, prince charles -- king charles was supposed to be visiting there. the protest put the kabosh on that and now a lot of people are going to enjoy springtime in paris and their visit is disrupted as well. so, they are applying pinpoint pressure in so many different ways against macron, we should point out as a result of this has lost his majority in the

parliament, survived two nonconfidence votes but looking at the reality of the situation and saying look there, is not the money to continue allowing people to get their full french pensions at the age of 62. we have to raise that by a couple of years. imagine being able to retire at the age of 64,er hoo -- here in the united states. we are talking about the age up to 68 or 69 now, but french have a unique way of voicing their discontent with policies that come down from on high, congresswoman. >> it's called free speech, we need to sometimes maybe be more. some are, some aren't. >> john: john mentioned the social safety net, interesting as an intellectual exercise to think about this compared with the experience of americans in this country who in many instances accustomed to the size of it, shrinking and growing every four years, sometimes

every two years, if congress changes majorities. it's a reality i think a lot of americans vote year on year on these very issues. in france, it's assumed most policies will continue to stay in place for decades, that's the trend. >> that has been the trend. france -- it's not just france, the european countries have had a stronger social net, they guarantee citizens healthcare. these are issues that divide us as americans at times. i think if you are sick you should be able to go to the doctor and get the medicine you need when you need it. look, it's my father-in-law that actually introduced the first universal healthcare bill and one of the authors of social security, so i believe we have to, you know, policies written a long time ago, and modernize them for the current times. i believe if you are a society that respects its elders, which

we all should be, they deserve to live with the safe, secure and dignified retirement, we have to get it figured out. >> john: we see lines of riot police there to quell the crowds in paris. more of a standoff than anything right now. the protestors have not directly been in conflict with the police, at least as far as i've seen right now, other than lighting fires and chanting and banging drums and other things. but it brings us back when we look at what's going on here in france. we have not seen protests like this in the united states but someplace the rubber is going to meet the road and social security is either going to have to be reformed or some point it's going to be insolvent. and if you talk to members on both sides of the aisle, they agree that we can't get these massive deficits and our debt under control unless you reform social security, medicare and medicaid, yet neither party unilaterally -- there we are seeing some confrontations. neither party in this country unilaterally wants to propose that without buy-in from the

other side but cannot come together on this. >> we have to sit down and determine -- we have -- we have to protect social security at all costs. people are counting on it. they paid millions into the system. we have three legged schools. people's pensions have been wiped out. social security is what seniors in this country depend upon. we have to make the system work and it's our responsibility in a bipartisan way to ensure seniors who thought they would have social security have it, period. >> why is nobody having that discussion? >> some of us, and other things should be included. expand it without harming the program. you know, seniors right now don't have dental care, they don't have hearing, they don't have, you know, mainly -- >> gillian: most americans don't. >> medical insurance is tied to jobs, some americans do, but many don't have dental. >> gillian: debbie, thank you for going with the flow with us covering this breaking news. if you could stand by for a

moment, i want to bring in our senior foreign affairs correspondent greg palkot. what are you learning from your sources on the ground? >> watching the live images as you are right now from paris, from my time in paris living there for several years, what the french people are very good at, trying to rule government from the street. watching basically the tail end of the 11th national day of protest, just in the last three months over this hike to retirement age, the most of the protest has gone on marching through the streets on the left bank of paris, and plasta italy, and you have young people on the fringes of what was organized by a union to be, and they are taking over and we are seeing violence. we have heard of at least 20 arrests, heard of some injuries on both sides, and yeah, watching the police doing what they do best in paris as well, using tear gas, batons, and

fighting off rocks and other items and fires that are being set by the protestors. yeah, it's about the retirement age. remember french president macron pushed it through, he didn't have enough votes in the parliament so he pushed it through like an executive order and got people even more angry about the fact they would have to work a little bit longer than they would have. talks between a union and the government yesterday broke down. the constitutional court in france next week will be deciding on it. heard of another big protest like this going on. i might adjust one thing that has not been discussed too much as we look at the pictures and witness the riots over the past couple of weeks and months. young people in paris and in france have very little hope for the future. there is a very high youth unemployment rate, especially if you are in the minorities in france, and these people, yes, they are thinking 30 years ahead and thinking they want to retire early, but they are thinking

about right now and a lot of hopelessness in paris by young people. i know, i've been in what they call the suburbs, the housing projects around paris and the other major cities and there's a desperation that the french government is not just the french president macron's government but governments in the past have not addressed it. we saw a formal protest, yes, older people worrying about working a few more years, and now young people worrying about a hopeless life ahead of them. a lot of problems in the france, the government, not just the french president, but other governments still have not been able to get a hand on. i've spent a lot of time there, it's a lovely place to live, but a place with a lot of problems, too, gillian. >> gillian: greg, do you think that we can see the pictures here, police have described a lot of the lit fires you are seeing, the smoke bombs as being set off by radical elements. they say -- i'm mentioning this

because you talked a moment ago about elderly people protesting, joined by younger people, civilians. do you think most of the protests to this point has been pretty peaceful or do you think that it's going to turn violent? >> the main body of the protest, gillian, have been peaceful. again, noisy and set off firecrackers and that kind of thing. and there have been tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands on the street, not just in paris but other cities. to some degree the protests get hijacked by the young people. somewhat organized, they have a name, black box, don't know too much about them and extremist organization. i think to a large degree it's spontaneous, and the young people will show up and make trouble with the police as they

do. but that's not to underestimate what we are seeing. i mean, we witnessed and reported on the ground for a long time what they call the yellow vest protest from just a couple years ago and i think our viewers will remember them. literally, folks wearing yellow vests upset about hikes in gas prices, now they are upset about something else and yes, the french go to the barricades on these kinds of things, gillian. >> gillian: the spirit of protest is certainly alive and well. greg, thank you for jumping in to help us out here with coverage of this. stand by, we have to bring you in -- bring our viewers more breaking news right now. >> john: jump to the white house where john kirby is taking questions. he was answering a question about afghanistan, saying that nobody had predicted the rapid fleeing of president ganhni and the dramatic fall. >> you have questions after the briefing today i'll stay here as long as you want, questions after the briefing today you know how to get ahold of me, we'll answer whatever you have.

>> two specific ones in the document here, page 8, the president received and accepted unanimous advice of his top national security officials to end the evacuation on august 31st. what is the definition of a top national security official, because we know for example general mckenzie has said he objected to as spents of this. what's the definition of the top national security official? >> i am -- individual advice that individual members of the president's team give him, that would not be appropriate for me, but i can tell you, having lived through this as well at the pentagon, that the president specifically asked his team, should we extend past the 31st. he specifically asked them to go back and look and see what that would look like, because we had secured this additional time from the taliban to the 31st of august, and the team did that. the team did that not just at

the highest levels of the pentagon, the secretary, chairman of the joint chiefs to general mckenzie, even the operational commanders on the ground, and numerous at the airport, all took a fair look at the president's request and came back to him. >> top national security? >> and said that it would not be advisable, given the high threat environment. what happened on the 26th, attack at abbey gate and a high temp between the 26th and 30th, which there was a kinetic strike taken in downtown kabul. there was high temp and so the advice of his senior national security team all the way up to the senior levels of the pentagon advised him the 31st was the appropriate date to end the evacuation. >> four pages of blame on the previous administration or this white house explanation what the last white house did regarding afghanistan. nowhere in here does there appear to be any expression of

accountability or mistake by either the president himself or others. is there any for what happened? >> i would argue the very fact that we voluntarily, the agencies voluntarily decided to conduct after action -- nobody told them to do that, they did it on their own. the fact they did that and now placing it in -- on the hill for congress to look at, the fact we digested and distilled some of the key points of that and gave it out in a public document, the fact i'm to you about it shows how seriously the president felt learning lessons from this withdrawal. and point out to you the work is not over. number one, even before you got that document, some of those lessons were applied. talked about ethiopia and ukraine. and number two, it's not like the work is all over. the president signed legislation enabling the afghan war

commission to be formed and we are going to continue to work and cooperate with that. that's going to look at the whole 20 years. america's longest war deserves a lengthy review and lengthy study and the president has committed to that. >> thank you. in reading this, you seem could be conceding evacuations should have happened sooner and faster, new prioritize earlier evacuations, i understand you've made clear the president does not have any regrets about his decision to withdraw, in hindsight, in reading this, does the president have regrets how the withdrawal was carried out? >> the president is very proud of the manner in which the men and women of the military, foreign service, intelligence community, on and on and on, conducted this withdrawal. but look, i've been around operations my entire life and not a single one that ever goes perfectly according to plan. things happen, sometimes enemies get a vote and you always want

to learn from that. and one of the things we learned, and i've talked about it here in my opening statement as well, is that you got to -- that balance of striking when do you pull out when a government is under threat, a friendly government, and do so in a way that doesn't undermine the very government you are trying to support. it's a tough balance to strike and different in every single case. as i said, we learn from afghanistan and applied the lesson in ukraine and ethiopia, being aggressive in the information space and willing to move a little sooner may be the best thing. >> does he wish he had done things differently? >> i think everything is laid out in the document about the take aways and the lessons we learned and proud of the men and women who conducted the withdrawal. >> you note that the speed and ease with which the taliban took

control, no scenario except a permanent expanded military presence that would have changed the trajectory. what is your message to the veterans, families of the fallen who may read that and wonder what was the point? >> the president said many times that the mission that we originally were sent in to afghanistan for was accomplished a long, long time ago. ordered in under president bush to avenge the 9/11 attacks and go osama bin laden and al-qaida, and over time, the president has talked about this, it morphed into something it was not intended to be. just because the mission changed over time under previous administration and leadership and scenarios does not mean anybody who served in afghanistan doesn't have something to be proud of. doesn't have -- sorry, doesn't

have service to this country that they can take with them the rest of their lives and feel honorable about it. they didn't -- they didn't make those decisions. they signed up, they raised their right hand, all volunteers at a time of war to say yeah, put me in, i'm going to go fight and some did not make it back and everybody that made it back made it back a little bit different than when they left and the president and the first lady understand and respect that and they should know they always have the commitment of the commander in chief. >> report says the trump administration four years of neglect including deliberate degradation left afghanistan operations in despair. could you be specific about deliberate degradation, what are you specifically referring to? >> there are many aspects, if you look at the doha agreement

and what led up to that, when president trump took office there was more than 10,000 american troops in afghanistan. he took it down to 2500. he negotiated release of 5,000 taliban prisoners that were being held by the gahni government without consultation with the government. he negotiated the doha agreement with the taliban without the ganhi government in the room. and he all but froze the special immigrant visa program, which had been providing opportunities for some of our afghan allies to get out of the country and come back. so it was a general sense of degradation and neglect there that the president inherited and

do not underestimate the effect that doha agreement had on the morale and the -- the willingness to fight on the afghan national security and defense forces. it had a very corrosive effect on their willingness to continue to fight for their country. we did not see that, we didn't see that, and part of the reason we didn't see that, we couldn't see the plans the previous administration allegedly worked on during the transition. as i said in my opening statement, none of those plans were forthcoming. >> would you say the points you just listed were the ones that made this transition? >> some of the key ones. >> and what the report says not broadcasting loudly about any potential worst case scenario, out of concern signal a lack of confidence in the afghan government position. we ended up seeing ganhi flee the country, and so was that a well thought-out decision?

>> what, his decision to flee? >> not broadcasting loudly any concerns about the lack of confidence in the afghan government. >> as i said, it's a difficult balance to strike and we were having internal conversations. we had conversations with the ganhi government over concerns what was happening throughout afghanistan in early august and where we came down on was not calling for an evacuation sooner because we did not want the government to collapse and we had every assurance made by president gahni he was not going anywhere, he was in charge, had a viable administration. so when do you make that call? and it's difficult, it's tough to do it in the moment and nobody can predict the future. we learned from the experience

and applied a more aggressive approach, if you will, in ethiopia and in ukraine. but every instance is different, every capital that is under threat is under a different kind of threat and you have to evaluate it. >> that summer before the withdrawal there was a dissent channel cable written by 23 state department officials kabul embassy warning the administration in their view was not prepared at that moment for the withdrawal. i'm curious, did this review take that dissent cable into account? >> you have to talk to the state department. the state department conducted an after action review and so did dod, and that's a question better put to them. >> and one then for the president and this administration. curious if there was a moment during the afghanistan withdrawal the president lost confidence in thas