>> todd: a fox news alert, potential breakthrough in the hunter biden investigation, an irs whistleblower says he has evidence interfered with the criminal investigation into the president's son and that whistleblower is seeking protection to tell his story to congress. you're watching "fox and friends first" on thursday morning, i'm todd piro. >> ashley: i'm ashley strohmier, in for carley shimkus. the latest allegations are throwing gas on congressional investigations into the first family with oversight committee chairman james comer telling fox

news digital, it is clear hunter and other members engaged in appalling shady business schemes to avoid scrutiny as they made millions from foreign adversaries like china. we been wondering where the doj and irs has been, it appears biden administration may have been working over time to prevent the bidens from facing consequences. >> todd: brooke singman has more. >> brooke: the unidentified whistleblower is claiming he has protected disclosures that detail pref rential treatment in politics affecting decisions that would be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected. the attorney says his client is ready to provide more information to congress investigating the president's son. listen.

>> to him, the truth is one truth and he wants to come forward with it. he's ready to be questioned about what he knows and what he experienced under proper legal protection. >> brooke: documents reveal current crisis communication expert robert hoops visited the white house more than 30 times while biden served as vice president. e-mail from hoops to hunter revealed the two were relieved neither of them were named as a business person like another who was charged. better than i hoped for based on his e-mail, we are not in the headline or lead paragraph and i thought we might be. good we sent the note claiming we are not connected to devin in this, he beat up hines pretty good, the revelations do not look good for the biden family.

watch. >> this was a family enterprise, what were they doing, why were they getting this much money? it point back to joe biden and we'll continue until we get the truth to the american people. i can say this, the walls are closing in on the biden family. >> brooke: comer saying it is deeply concerning that the biden administration may be obstructing justice and blocking efforts to charge hunter for tack violation. >> todd: i agree. ron desantis continuing his cross-country tour touting his plan the florida blueprint. yesterday he stopped in south carolina, early battleground state for presidential hopefuls. >> the disney, we made sure to keep them in their pen one way or the other. >> todd: this comes after several visits to several states, including iowa, fuelling speculation about the 2024

presidential run, set to make next stop in utah before heading to israel later next week. >> ashley: pair of far left groups describing themselves as feminists, partnering with conservatives as white house pushes back against bill to prevent biological males from participating in women's sports. registered democrat and president of the feminist group women's declaration international usa tells fox news, "i think it is height of hypocrisy for democratic leadership, including the president, to champion rights of women and girls to abortion, which we support, while denying rights of women and girls to single-sex spaces." >> todd: we asked where feminists are and now we have an answer. san francisco state university canceling a conservative event a few weeks after riley gaines was

attacked. [cheering and chanting] [screaming] >> todd: turning point usa contributor jon root, who was scheduled to speed at the university joins us. >> there was an assault on riley gaines and now an assault on free speech. what we're seeing is they are holding to their values if their values are intolerance and fascism and trying to vilify the chapter and that is the reason we moved because there was no assurance the chapter would not receive disciplinary action. >> todd: before the school cancelled the event, the president warning students turning point usa is hosting a speaker here who many find abhorrent. it is unjust to redirect it at

community members. ashley, so much wrong with the story, the school came out and said here are our core values, basically women aren't women. a school saying women aren't women is a core value. >> ashley: i will never understand. >> todd: billions of hard earned taxpayer dollars that the biden administration sending to afghanistan could be going into the hands of the taliban. wait until you hear this shocking admission. >> ashley: chad robichaux has a message for the president next. how do we decide what hotel to book? fear not, i got you. choice hotels has a hotel for every type of stay. like a comfort with the kiddos. spacious! that's what they all say. stay twice and get a $50 gift card when you book direct at choicehotels.com.

>> todd: secretary of state antony blinken could be held in contempt of congress after not handing over. secretary blinken continue to make clear his and state department commitment to working with the house committee to provide relevant information while upholding his -- discussions with the committee about next steps are ongoing. house foreign affairs committee issued a subpoena last month for

the document, part of efforts to investigate the biden administration disastrous exit from afghanistan. >> ashley: a shocking moment in that hearing when the special inspector general testified that u.s. taxpayer dollars could be in the hands of a terror organization. >> i cannot assure this committee or american taxpayer we are not currently funding the taliban, nor can i assure you the taliban are not diverting the money we are sending from the intended poor afghan people. >> ashley: chad robichaux was on the ground in afghanistan during the withdrawal and details that in his book. he joins me now. chad, good to see you this morning. this is shocking and concerning, there is a possibility taxpayer dollars will be funding or have been funding the taliban, what are your thoughts? >> chad: i'm not shocked, the

taliban flag is flying over kabul and remember who the taliban is. they are not a country or government, they are a terrorist organization, the world's most evil terrorist organization, in my opinion, who rapes children, entraps their women and we have this agreement that says they are not supposed to allow terrorism to happen in afghanistan, they are a terrorist organization and we are giving them money and trusting what they do with the money and there is no congressional oversight. the inspector general nailed it, there is no oversight of this money. we are sending it there. we sent 2 billion in aid and trusting a terrorist organization to do something good with it. of course they will not do something good with it, they enslave women, they forced us out of afghanistan at the -- i wouldn't even say incompetence

of the white house, this is not malfe malfeasance or incompetence. we are looking at sending more money with no oversight and that is what the general is speaking about -- sorry, the inspector general is speaking about and the state department is stonewalling him, usa, no one is giving him answers or speaking up for where the money has gone and u.s. taxpayer dollars are being used by the taliban to do terrorism. >> ashley: an agreement doesn't mean anything to them, they are a terrorist group, i don't know what will take for people to understand that. they released that measly 12-page report on the disastrous withdrawal, that was a slap in the face to the marines who lost their lives and all of america.

why is biden and the biden administration keep allowing this to happen? >> chad: well, i mean, look, the motive is something we don't know. who benefits from the united states military being out of afghanistan? it is china. that is not a conspiracy theory, that is not a partisan statement, that is facts. the united states military being in afghanistan prohibited china from getting mineral rights from lithium. we moved out and within the next week the taliban gave them the mineral rights and sanctioned oil from iran. china was pressuring the white house for us to move and bagram is most strategic place on earth, our enemies did not want us there. our partners were successfully working with us to keep terrorism at bay there, keep the

taliban in mountains and we and the white house and president biden without consent, including the afghan government and international allies move the united states military out of afghanistan. >> ashley: the ig is calling out the biden administration for not cooperating with investigators, listen. >> the lack of cooperation by state and not talking about the ig's, the department of state and to lesser extent usaid is unprecedented. significant portion of cigar work including the five reports we did for this committee have been hindered and delayed. >> ashley: need a quick response and reaction to that? >> chad: yeah, i mean, the state department was blocking the rescue efforts of the united

states american citizens during the withdrawal and ever since then secretary blinken and president biden state department has hindered, hid, covered up everything that happened in afghanistan, including the 12-page report, which is complete joke they would do a report giving themselves a plus for this disastrous withdrawal that cost american lives. >> ashley: more time that goes by, the less likely we will get any type of answers. you did go through the rescue mission in afghanistan and saveden sfa -- saved 17,000 lives. thank you, chad. have you heard of gas station heroin? users say it gives same high as fentanyl. it is available in gas stations around the country. >> todd: a lawmaker who wants to

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>> ashley: 15 tornados ripped through oklahoma leaving a trail of destruction. 18,000 people and businesses lost power across the state. warnings for multiple counties as winds tore off roofs and downed power lines. >> todd: folks taking shelter inside a papa johns pizza shop. residents sharing pictures of this golfball sized hail. i saw tennis ball sized. it is dangerous. janice dean is here. >> janice: we will see devastation when the sun comes up, the storms came overnight. we warned people this could be

dangerous, i am concerned people were not as aware or knowing what to do when the devastating storms moved through. you see the wind damage, large hail, we saw strong tornados move through the oklahoma city area, up toward kansas and in toward missouri. there is a look at the storms right now. we do not have tornado warned storms, but warnings and take a look at radar as we went through overnight, some storms exploded in and around the oklahoma city area. i think we'll wake up to devastation in some areas. severe thunderstorm watch in effect for some of the areas, including kansas, toward st. joseph. over mississippi river valley to

ohio river valley from corpus christi, to chicago and madison, wisconsin. tornado risk for houston, dallas, little rock, toward chicago. tomorrow risk goes down issue but still looking for potential of large hail, damaging wind and isolated tornados. i pray for those folks, it is a deadly storm, the storm damage is going to be extreme. >> todd: thank you for the update. prayers for those folks. seattle mayor claims the answer to the fentanyl epidemic is a gift card for addicts who attend treatment to stop use. >> eight out of 10 homeless people are addicted to some sort of elicit drugs.

they will buy more drugs. a lot of supply coming from china and cartels in mexico and the borders are porous. >> todd: 293 people have die third degree year from fentanyl in seattle. now to this terrifying development in the drug crisis. pills have chemical makeup identical to heroin and fentanyl are available at convenience stores around the country, marketed as sup a supplement to treat depression and anxiety. there is legislation to ban the drug. andrew, i must admit, i did not know about this until i prepared for this segment. why would this kind of drug be available, period, much less available in a convenience store gas station?

>> everything you said is absolutely correct. aside from chemical composition, it is totally identical to heroin, effect, addiction, identical. the reason it is legal in the u.s. right now, it is relatively new. these companies come up every decade or so and take an illegal addictive substance and tweak the composition slightly so it is legal. right now many people haven't heard of it, in my state it is significant issue and i would like to get ahead of it. >> todd: thank goodness somebody is doing it, this is frightening. i question the humanity of somebody who sees ills of fentanyl and heroin and says we need to get that in nonprescription and almost nonillegal form. this is legal until you make it illegal. one thing i mentioned, how addictive it is. can you walk us through how

difficult it is to get off this drug? >> absolutely, what i'm hearing from coroners, district attorneys, methadone clinics, not only is gas station heroin difficult, almost impossible to get off of, it is gateway drug for opioid, heroin and cocaine. people are overdosing, going into comas, heart attacks and has a short half life, three hours begins to wear off and people are quickly and some people are taking eight to 10 bottles per day of this substance in the state of pennsylvania. >> todd: you are trying to do something about it, other states are trying to do something about it, we will pop that up on the screen. big picture, does our country's lax attitude toward drugs allow something like this to get ahold in the first place before people

know what hit them? >> absolutely, it comes from leadership at the top, we need awareness. we need law and order, we need an aggressive stance in this country. we need to fix this issue. this is affecting the health of the people consuming it. people are losing jobs, losing families and kids and things are falling apart. we need to get ahead of it. >> todd: it is rare i learn about something this severe in preparation, hope the viewers are made aware. state representative andrew kuzma, thank you. gop lawmakers accusing dhs secretary alejandro mayorkas of lying under oath during this week's border hearings. >> it is my testimony that the border is secure and we are working everyday, day and night, to increase its security.

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foot before authorities caught him charging him with human smuggling and evading arrest. apprehended the four suspects traveling with him before the crash. and alejandro mayorkas coming face-to-face with victims yesterday. lawmakers turning the secretary's attention to the family of a grandmother and seven-year-old girl who were killed by a human smuggler. >> will you turn around and offer them condolences and apology for failure of your administration that led to the death of their loved ones. they are there. mr. secretary, they are standing there and deserve apology from you. >> mr. chairman, may i stand and turn? >> certainly. >>-- [indiscernible] >> todd: the family lost their loved ones in a traffic accident caused by a human smuggler

fleeing arrest at the border. republicans accuse mayorkas of lying under oath with repeated claims on the status of the border crisis. >> it is my testimony that the border is secure and we're working everyday, day and night, to increase security. >> while you live in denial and sit with attitude you are doing everything right, you are killing americans with your policies. >> it is stunning that you can sit there and smugly grin as if you have not miserably failed your country. >> ashley: fox news contributor tom homan is here to debunk the secretary. you heard him say his administration is working day and night to secure the border. what do you make of those comments? it is insulting. >> tom: he has no integrity, i've never seen a cabinet official lie under oath.

fox news has thousands of hours of video showing what a crisis this is. 1700 migrants have died since he's been secretary. 5.5 million illegal encounters, historic record. we have 1.4 million gotaways, 1.4 million crossed the border on his watch and were not arrested. historic number. look at the trump administration and then show first two months of biden administration and ask was the border more secure than president trump? numbers prove they are, to continue to lie is disjustice to men and women wearing border patrol uniform who are putting their lives on the line. 17 of them committed suicide last year. show the common decency to say we have a problem on the border. >> todd: it is not just alejandro mayorkas who is lying, it is the president of the

united states. i think you raise an important point, the biden administration love to talk about how much harder they have it at the border than other administrations, but isn't all the issues they are facing of their own doing? >> tom: exactly. we had the same exact challenges in the trump administration, we took steps and made policies and made the country step up to secure the border. we had the most secure border in the nation's history and this administration dismantled it and signed orders abolishing what we did. this is not incompetence, it is by design and they can no longer deny that. >> ashley: talk about mayorkas and testifying under oath, republicans, you heard them hammering him. you have hammered him and

accused him of lying under oath. to that point, it is not just him. we've heard the whole administration lie or if you want to say mislead the american public about what is going on, why are they doing this? >> tom: alejandro mayorkas takes direction from the president, but he is secretary of homeland security. he knows we have 1.4 million gotaways, many countries are sponsors of terrorism. he knows it is a huge national security failure. he knows of the 1.4 million, chances are some came to do us harm. secretary of homeland security, his job to tell the president to stop open border policy or i will resign. i'm secretary of homeland

security and i can no longer sit aside and watch that happen. if he had integrity, that is what he would do, a better man would. >> ashley: he talked about the border being secure, his head of border says no, it is not secure. he needs to step up. >> tom: he needs to be impeached. >> todd: a lot of republicans are calling for that. >> ashley: thank you. republicans are getting unprecedented power in state legislature and super majorities are more powerful than governors in some states. kansas is a state with republican super majority and talking to speaker of the house on what that means for their agenda. >> todd: and robert kennedy jr. just took a chunk out of 2024. cheryl casone will dive into that next.

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>> my mission over the next 18 months for this campaign and over throughout my presidency

will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power. >> ashley: robert f. kennedy officially launching his campaign for the 2024 democratic nomination and it appears that is not boding well for president biden. >> todd: cheryl casone has more. >> cheryl: good morning, that is right. kennedy launching his campaign with surprising strength considering he is running against sitting president joe biden. robert f. kennedy has 14% support from those who chose bi biden. and 13% are undecided. president biden's approval rating now at 39%, down from 42% last month. volatile stock market, the president is shifting the nation's economic woes and

blaming the republicans saying it is their fault. watch this. >> president biden: kevin mccarthy went to wall street to describe the maga economic vision for america, threat of defaulting on america's debt for first time in 230 years, we've never ever defaulted on debt, it would destroy the economy. >> cheryl: referencing the debt ceiling. remember, the inflation that the country is dealing with is tied to in particular to all stimulus spending we've had under president biden. >> cheryl: the house oversight chairman james comer is making more accusations about the biden family. >> cheryl: correct. president biden and his family basically being accused of running a tax scheme. >> this family had set up dozens of llc's used to disguise or

launder suspicious payments from adversaries around the world and using the llc's to pay for living expenses and serve no business purpose we can identify and the question that popped up in my head the first day was how do you pay taxes on this? this is a tax scheme and influence pedalling scheme. >> cheryl: comments from comer after the lawyer for the white house whistleblower says affairs were mishandled. detailed pref rential treatment and improperly affecting decisions and protocol normally followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the suspect not politically connected. more questions about not just hunter biden's business dealings with the chinese, the fact he is

getting pref rential treatment. >> todd: that whistleblower is a big deal, pay attention to this story. republicans gaining power in state legislature across the country with super majority that make them more powerful than the democratic governors with enough power to override a veto. kansas, one of those states with super majority and daniel hawkings joins me now. you heard the old expression, all party politics are local and all politics in general are local. how vital are local elections to the republican party? >> they are very much vital. we are working every single day, even now, working on the next election cycle to make sure we continue to have a super majority in our house. both the senate and house will be up for election next year, local elections are vital to

make sure we are always listening to our constituents and taking that to topeka. in this case, we push back against our governor a lot. >> todd: why? why are republicans winning local races, not just in kansas, but nationally in states where the governor is a democrat? >> it is strange in kansas, this is second term for democratic governor, but kansas believes in the agenda we've put forth, a conservative agenda that we worked through this year. we believe we are doing exactly what our constituents sent us there to do. they did send a super majority of gops to the state and want to continue to push back against

our governor's woke agenda she has. >> todd: what are examples of bills you have pushed back on because you have such a super majority? >> so we have certainly many, many bills, fairness in women's sports was a huge bill for us, which she vetoed, we've overridden that veto already. we have election day is election day, we have border live bill she vetoed last friday we will certainly override when we get back. women's right to know, we have a child care bill. we are in a child-care crisis in kansas and want to reduce that and we brought that forward. child mutilation protection act, esg, put together a tax cut

package in kansas -- welfare reform. we put forward this year. >> todd: daniel hawkings, we have to leave it there, we appreciate your time and make a note, you are not just winning races, oftentimes like in north carolina, we had representative who switched from democrat to republican because democratic party left her, that is a trend we will pay attention to. daniel hawkings, thank you, sir. what is the biden administration's top priority? it is not crime, not fentanyl and not rising prices making your life harder. it is this. >> climate change is the crisis of our lifetime, we have obligation to future generations to make sure we have a planet for them to live on and that is why i'm here and that is why i'm working incredibly hard to make sure we can realize that

transition. >> todd: congressman bruce westerman was leading that hearing and joins us next. >> ashley: first brian kilmeade will look at what is coming up on "fox and friends." >> brian: sounds like she was about to cry, great show as usual. senator mike lee is here and congressman mike turner has his hands full leading the investigation into the document leak from the pentagon, he joins us, he had a briefing and it was anything, but good. ron desantis is not alone, mayor fra frances suarez is considering a run and brian brenberg knows about math, tammy bruce knows about politics and harry ford jr. knows everything, they are coming to studio m top of the hour. i have to get dressed, good

news, for the most part, i am, now it is up to you. now throw in the graphics. .

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♪ >> ashley: crying over climate. the department of interior secretary getting misty while testifying over biden's $30 billion energy budget. >> are you committed to an all of the above energy strategy that lowers costs for americans? >> we are committed to energy independence for our country. climate change is the crisis of our lifetime. we have an obligation to future generations to make sure that we have a planet for them to live on, and that's why i'm here. and that's why i'm working incredibly hard to make sure we can realize that transition. >> todd: congressman bruce joins us now. that was quite a virtue signaling spectacle those tears or attempted tears.

what is the reaction to the answer to your question like that. >> shows where this federal agency is. they have lost their way. they hav be doing of our naturay is the genuine message that secretary holland wanted to put out speaking to the left base that they have got ignoring the hardworking americans whod me more energy and minerals and being by this administration. >> ashley: come hard to come up with tears like that if you aren't actually serious about what you are saying finally came to testify after two years and started crying about climate change what about obligation to people here right now when it comes to inflation and crime. talking about the biggest threat

to our generation, what do you think? >> we got a lot of threats to our current and future generations. even if you take their climate argument, their policies are going the wrong direction. making us more dependent on opec and china for mining and minerals. we're consuming products from around the world that are produced in the worst circumstances where when we make it here in america. it's clean. there's no human rights violations. and it's better for the environment and the economy. and i don't know why they can't see that and why they continue to double down on not making us energy independent, although they say that, their policies are going in just the opposite direction. they are more focused on their woke culture than they are the job for the american people. that's why i say they have lost their way. >> todd: i think the important policies mentioned in ashley's question and your answer are actual crises. i would just add earlier in the show, we have the found bite of the immigration hearing about the grandmother and the child

who were by the migrant that's the reason you cry in a hearing not necessarily this. why haven't they had enough money to do what they need to do already? >> well, finally good to get the secretary back in front of a hearing because she has had a free pass like most of the administration has until republicans took control of the house. we found out things through these hearings in the inflation reduction act there was $200 million put up there for maintenance backlog in the national park system. guess where all $200 million went it went for nancy pelosi's pprevideo park in strand. nant next backlog funding went to nancy pelosi's district.

you see an administration. you see the far left that they talk about doing things for the common person. but what they are doing is paying off special interest in their own party and that's ridiculous that nearly a quarter of the maintenance backlog would go into nancy pelosi's district. it's ridiculous if it went into any one district. it's not the nancy pelosi service. it's the national park service. >> todd: i think your explanation there also leads perfectly into this next topic. the fish and wildlife service is making its priorities clear where it wants go. quote the diversity equity and inclusion agenda is the agency's most important work right now. i don't know, congressman, shouldn't the fish and wildlife agency's most important work be what's the word i'm going for, ash? that's right, fish and wildlife. >> yeah. and they talk about the endangered species act but doing

nothing to help habitat to save our endangered species to take species off the endangered list by recovering them. goes to show you how their priorities are misplaced and again it's not the u.s. -- it is the u.s. fish and wildlife service not the u.s. fringe and woke service. that's what it has become. we found out they had a seminar for people with echo grief to go get counseling because they are working, in the fish and wildlife service and they just can't handle what they are seeing out there on the ground so they go get counseling for echo grief. that's where your tax dollars are going. >> ashley: i had forgot been that echo grief part. i'm glad you wrought that up. to me this ties in to what we were first talking about with the crying and talking about climate. doesn't this just stress to you even more that the washington elites are just completely out of touch we have 10 or 15 seconds or so. >> absolutely out of touch. you know, go out and do your job. make the world a better place.

provide clean energy and provide the mining and michelles we need. take care of animals and the fish and make the world a better place. take care of our forests. they go up in flames every summer. >> ashley: a lot to unpack here congressman bruce westerman, thank you so much for your time this morning. we appreciate you. >> thank you. >> todd: the joke they want to bring dei to the wildlife itself it. could happen. "fox & friends" starts now. >> lack of cooperation is unprecedented. >> the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan is under new scrutiny. >> special inspector general accusing the biden administration of obstructing his investigation. >> i cannot assure this committee we are not currently funding the taliban. >> the walls are closing in. >> a potential breakthrough in the hunter biden investigation. irs whistleblower says he has evidence that the biden administration interfered with the criminal investigation into the president's son. >> he has the receipts. it's not going to be in doubt. >> will you turn around and

offer them your condolce