nations strong to counter isis threats in the middle east to positioning the air force for the future in the indo pacific, general brown has built a reputation across the force as an unflappable, highly effective leader. someone who creates an environment of teamwork, trust, and executes with excellence. and someone who smokes a mean brisket. general brown says he doesn't play for second place. he plays to win and that's obvious. that mind-set is going to be enormous asset to me as commander in chief and to the united states of america as we navigate challenges in the coming years. over the past three years as chief of staff of the air force, general brown has become known for his signature approach. accelerate, change, or lose. accelerate, change or lose. general, you're right on. as i've often said, our world is at an inflection point where decisions we make today will determine the course of our world for decades to come.

and to keep america prosperous and secure, we have to move fast, adapt quickly. we have to maintain a combat credible force capable of deterring any potential threat and manage competition with china and meet reality of renewed aggression in europe. we need to make sure to retain our competitive edge in an i think where emerging technologies from ai to 3d printing could fundamentally change the character of conflict. with general brown as chairman, i know i will be able to rely on his advice as a military strategist and leader of military innovation, dedicated to keeping the armed forces, the best in the world, and best in the history of the world and that's a fact. i'll also be able to's line with a leader unafraid to speak his mind, someone who will deliver an honest message that needs to be heard and always do the right thing

when it's hard. that's the number one quality a president needs in a chairman. and that's the leader. that's the leader that all americans met three years ago when general brown gave an unfliching video testimonial sharing his own experience of racism and his deep love of our country to which he dedicated his entire life. it took backbone, struck a chored not only with military members but with americans across the country. he is a fearless leader and unyielding patriot. three years ago he was confirmed by the united states senate 98-0.

i urge the senate to once again confirm general brown with the same overwhelming bipartisan support for his new role as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. i also want to recognize cq's family. his wife. would you stand? i know that's embarrassing. thank you. and son shawn and ross. throughout his career in the air force, they've always put family first. they both know from their own experience growing up in military families it is not just the person who wears the uniform who serves, the whole family serves. and the whole family sacrifices on behalf of the nation. you are true partners in dedication to health and well-being of women and men in uniform and their families. five and thrive. initiative that's doing important work to address the greatest issues effecting military families and child care, education, spousal employment, health care, and housing. i know that jill and i look forward to working more closely with you

through her joining forces initiative. let me close with this. this year will mark the 75th anniversary of an integrated force and 75th anniversary of women serving in the force, and 50th anniversary of the all volunteer force. we are celebrating the root of our national strength. the most american of ideas, most self-evident truth that all women and men are created equal and no more powerful testament than the armed forces of the united states of america. the steps we have taken over the decades to harness full diversity of our nation have grown our armed forces into the greatest fighting force, i will say it second time, greatest fighting force in the history of the world. general brown, you've been an essential leader making our nation and force even stronger. you've made history. and you have even made it

as a jeopardy clue. did you know that? you made it as a jeopardy clue, the daily double no less. so thank you, general brown and to the family for being willing to take on this mission. i ckcan think of no one better suited or qualified to lead our forces through the challenges and responsibility ahead. i look forward to having you at my side advising me as the next chairman, helping keep the american people safe. thank you all, thank the military in the audience. thank you for your service and thank you to your families. may god protect our troops. thank you. >> announcing brown to succeed mark milley as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

the announcement coming at a turbulent time for the

>> jackie? >> sorry, couldn't hear you there. i think the president's nomination is coming at a significant time. especially with respect to ugsdz especially with the debt tax, tying up washington the last week. have everyone on the edge of their seat where this goes. a big sticking point has been republicans wanting to increase defense spending and democrats are balking at that because it would, if you increase spending for defense, result in deeper cuts for other programs that are very important to their bases, things like education and welfare programs that democrats have been voicing a lot of concern about. the president has not given a whole lot about the state of the debt limit talks aside from what he said at the beginning of his

remarks there. but where we go with defense funding is really sort of emblematic of the administration's priorities. republicans have said that this president is weak on china and i find it notable that today as we are learning about the chinese backed hacker attack on american military installations in guam, thought to be one of the biggest cyber espionage campaigns in u.s. history, we hear about that announcement through microsoft absent of any statement from the white house as the white house negotiators are still hashing out issues about whether or not to bring defense funding to the levels republicans are pushing for. >> john: as the u.s. transitions to a different threat, cyber is one huge piece of that. and this idea of malware that microsoft announced

was discovered, particularly on systems in guam, the center base of any defense of taiwan is worry some, something that speaker brown will have to look at very, very closely and make sure that the president is prepared as he advises him going forward. >> yeah. there's going to be this very complex challenge the general will face when he becomes chairman of the joint chiefs. he is fighting not only ground wars around the world but trying to back up two independent territories, taiwan and the country of ukraine as they battle their own battles without becoming officially military involved. he is fighting a war in cyberspace against the chinese. what was particularly alarming to intelligence officials about the cyber attack that jackie mentioned is the fact that the malware was intended to directly sever communications between the united states and parts of asia during a taiwanese

invasion. president biden said many, many times his whole goal is to make sure taiwan has the means available to unilaterally defend itself against china. this kind of malware could really impede that. it is a big challenge for the intelligence community and the military. >> >> sandra: jennifer, final thought from you as we saw this ceremony at the white house, obviously a person you know very well but happening at a time of turbulence for the military. recruitment is down. there are major challenges and struggles that are happening. any idea where he might go with those challenges? >> well, it is interesting, sandra, as john mentioned, general brown was our guest at the white house correspondents dinner. he sat at the fox table. he comes from a long line of service in his family. his grandfather led a segregated unit in world war ii, his father served in vietnam, and he grew up in texas, went to texas

tech. he was an rotc scholar there. he is going to be a great symbol for recruitment, particularly in the black community. they'll see somebody that looks like them. that will help with recruiting. he is also going to come in, ironic he comes in as an f16 pilot on the same week we learned the u.s. is providing f16 training to ukrainian pilots. >> sandra: thank you all around to reporters. >> john: the clock is ticking in washington. speaker mccarthy and president biden have seven days to nail down a debt ceiling deal before the first ever default, according to janet yellen, that's the day. karine jean-pierre warns there's no plan b. >> what i can say is there is no, there really, this is the only option we have is for congress to do its job. >> bring in house majority leader steve scalise. i want to play a little of

what speaker mccarthy said this morning on with our colleagues about the possibility of getting a debt deal. >> i don't know if we have a deal today. we worked well past midnight last night. we did make progress yesterday but still have a number of items to get through. i had numerous discussions with the president about this. we have gone around and around. he knows where we are and we know where our differences are and we will continue to be at the table to try to solve this problem. >> round and round. sounds like an old rat song. doesn't sound particularly positive. >> john, good to be with you. obviously if you look at who has taken action to address the debt ceiling, the house is the only body that's done that. the white house keeps talking about congress needs to do their job, we passed a bill to address the debt ceiling. the president took 97 days off. he recently got back engaged. the united states senate is not in this week. there are no senators here, they're not coming

until next week. clearly they're not taking this seriously but we are. that's why we passed a bill to address the debt ceiling and to address washington's spending problem. shouldn't we also address the fact for every $100 we take in, washington spends $129. you can't keep doing that. we want to fix that too. that's what the negotiations are about. >> jackie passed a letter with new demands, they want border security, knicksing fbi headquarters spending, want janet yellen to share math in terms of x date being june 1st, and want to quickly move for covid and irs rescission to push the x dayligh date back to june. they said speaker mccarthy, you're the reason there's unity in the republican conference. if you want to keep it that way, do this. are you concerned they may begin to derail the process with new demands?

>> they've been working with us every step of the way, bringing ideas to the table just like other members of the conference. that was reflected in the bill we passed. everybody had involvement in that. we also did pass other bills. a few weeks ago we passed that very bill they reference, hr2, securing the border act. we know how out of control the border is. we have to get that under control, too. but we need a president that's engaged. the president has to put real ideas on the table. he should have done that two months ago when we started these talks. he checked out for 97 days and that cost the white house some time. we haven't been waiting, we have been doing our jobs. >> the way the speaker describes it, he may have to give up things to get a deal. listen to what he said this morning. >> one thing i will tell people is this deal won't solve all the problems. the president took a lot of things off the table. this puts us in the first step and whatever we don't achieve will come back the next day. we have to work towards being able to balance the budget and this is the

first step. >> that sounds ominously like kicking cans down the road. is it? >> well, if you look at some of the things the white house tried to do that we said are nonstarters, president biden said he wants to spend more money. said that's not going to be the case, we need to spend less. president biden wanted more tax increases on hard working families. we said that's a nonstarter, there will not be a dime in new taxes. we need to lower the tax burden that's hurting families now with high inflation. washington spending is driving high inflation. president biden by the way raised over a trillion in new taxes the last two years. tax increases would solve the problem, we would already be at a balanced budget because of what biden and pelosi did, obviously tdoesn't work. we need to get the economy going again. >> the president says republicans are to blame if the country tips into default. the american people would

seem to be with you according to a fox news poll, who is more to blame if they don't reach agreement. 47% the president, 44% republicans, 8% said both. the american people appear to be with you in terms of spending as well. we asked on the debt limit, congress should increase only if spending cuts. 57% without cuts which is the president's position, 27%. not increase at all, 13%. quick final thought. >> the president said he wanted a blank check. not only did we say that's not going to happen, the american people said that's irresponsible. that's why we have high inflation because of too much spending. the president took 97 days off and the american people watched that too. said the house passed a bill. they laid responsible ideas, work requirements for people sitting home making 35,000 a year while somebody else works two jobs, barely getting by. let's reclaim unspent covid money, maybe $50 billion of unspent covid money and covid is over,

even according to president biden. why not give money back to the taxpayers, get more savings there. those are common sense things in the bill. that's why the american people responded and said why don't you work with what the republicans laid out and get the deal done. >> clock is ticking. the president is headed to the beach this weekend. he can work from anywhere, as long as it is not new guinea. >> happy memorial day to you. >> the fact is i'm not sure without listening to the public that this is going to be the right forum to be able to answer your questions early. >> all right. san francisco mayor london breed not getting a warm welcome from residents. wait until you hear why they were heckling her. and we'll tell you that and get brian kilmeade to react. he is ready to go next. >> john: as major cities see up tick in crime, some are looking to take

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>> people are now paying up to tens of thousands for highly trained security dogs. senior national correspondent got a look at what the dogs can do. william, dogs amaze us every single day. what are you learning about these dogs? >> well, people we met came for different reasons, sandra. home invasions, real

estate agent, man works nights, people live in the middle of nowhere, they want someone, a dog at home to protect them. most don't need that high level executive protection, but others do, because of what they do or who they are. for them, it makes sense. >> people don't feel safe any more, i am giving a solution you don't have to kill somebody, you don't have to use a gun, just have peace of mind, you have a protection dog. >> man's best friends are upping their game. >> your alarm system is great, it can let you know there's a threat outside but won't engage in the threat itself. protection dogs are ready to go at any given time. >> with crime up double digits in major cities, many are turning to trainers like delta canine in north hollywood. >> right now i'm short on dogs because there's so much demand. >> demand for high end puppies and fully trained protection dogs. >> me not being at home

all the time, having this, i know that my family is safe. >> bobby took code a home as a puppy, returns twice a week for protection training. >> you can't just get a dog that's trained. the dog learns thing but you have to know how to handle it. it is a weapon. >> take dexter, taught to intimidate or bite, release. even apologize. prices range from several thousand dollars to 150 grand for a fully trained protection dog delivered to your door. owners say it is worth it. >> i am a real estate agent. sometimes i'm alone at houses. having a protection dog means everything to me. >> they're protection and companion. they come, yocuddle you, give you kisses. best of both worlds. >> indeed that's too much money for most people. most of us don't have the time, interest, ability to do training like that.

so as you saw some get a puppy based on breed, temperament, pedigree, and attend weekly classes based on need. back to you. >> a fascinating story. thank you. >> your name? >> yolanda. [ gunshots fired ] >> get down. get down, stay down and get down. that's okay. thank you lord jesus. stay down and get down. >> cameras capture terrifying moments of a drive b-by shooting near a children's playground during a television interview focused on rampant crime in the area. incredible. our next guest, the woman in the video stayed calm, dropped to the ground until it was all over. bring in yolanda cooper sutton. thanks for being with us. thanks for hanging through

the president's announcement as well. walk us up to the moment that happened. what were you doing, why were you talking with the television crew? >> well, as you know crime in america is at its almost high. it has extremely been hard here in memphis, tennessee with juvenile crime and gun laws that have been instituted in the state of tennessee, it is actually reckless. so there was just an interview going on about the juveniles and gun crime and everything and the news reporter and i were setting up, getting ready to start the interview. all of a sudden just out of nowhere you hear gunfire. you see us hit the ground. >> let's pause for a second, replay that moment. i will get you to describe

it. listen. >> get down. get down. just stay down and get down. >> what went through your mind at that moment because that wasn't just one or two shots, that was a lot of gunfire. >> well, when i first heard, i knew it was gunshots because it rings around the city like a church bell on a regular basis. i just know now it's almost a practice to get down like a fire drill in memphis because the crime escalated so much. i just knew to get down because a moving target is a hit target. best thing for anyone to do is get down. that was just instinct. just my instinct kicking in immediately. >> let's play a little more of that scene when

you got down. you told the reporter to get down and you're incredibly calm through the whole thing. listen here. >> that's okay. thank you lord jesus. just stay down and get down. they're coming back. you're okay, jay. thank you lord for the blood of jesus to cover us. thank you, father, for the blood of jesus. thank you lord. >> wow. you say get down, stay down. you're going to be okay, jay, you start to pray. how did you stay calm through that? >> what you just heard, my prayer, praying before you go somewhere, praying before you leave your home, praying, just praying that you and your family and whoever you're engaging with, especially in these times we are in, this city or anywhere else, just praying, so it comes naturally when it is part of your life-style. you pray. >> there's one final moment i want to play. this is the end of the video.

listen here. >> all right. we should be all right. drive by? >> yeah. >> someone with a black car. >> all right. we should be all right. you see that black car? you kind of alluded to this a moment ago, that's just an everyday thing there. okay, we had our moment, we are all okay, let's move on with life. >> as we are now as this moment is now, yes, it is. it is a way of life here in memphis, tennessee now. there's a lot of crime that plagued our city like an uncontrollable cancer. yes. i just never expected that. let me tell you something, i never, ever, ever, ever have been involved in anything like that before, but it is like a fire drill. you have to be prepared now in the times we are in. >> you were clearly

prepared the way you reacted. reaching to that well of prayer. that's a big thing for folks to do. i don't know if it kept the bullets away from you, maybe we can hope it did. yolanda, great to talk to you. we are glad you're fine. hope you never go through that again. >> thank you. me either, i hope i never have to experienceave been in areas shots were fired a lot, couple my direction during the war, but i mean the way that she was just so calm and was keeping the folks around her calm was extraordinary. >> sandra: amazing. to watch her reaction whiem you played out that moment was really something. really sweet woman, strong woman. learned a lesson. stay calm. it will improve a situation like that that's dangerous. >> john: she's a blessing to that community. no question. >> sandra: all right. john, meanwhile, san francisco mayor london breen trying to hold a

meeting in part of town known to be open air drug market. the meeting was toll pitch solutions. she ended up heckled off stage. >> let me ask the question. you have an opportunity for public comment. >> you have a drug problem. come to the navigation center, don't let nobody know. >> the fact is i'm not sure without listening to the public this is going to be the right forum to be able to answer your questions early. >> sandra: the mayor and other city leaders had to abruptly leave after being heckled by protesters on the ground. police say one person was arrested for hurling a brick that nearly killed a child. that's happening as about a banana republic is

leaving the downtown area. brian kilmeade with us, co-host of ""fox & friends" and host of a radio show as well." this is a list of downtown san francisco closings. one after another. gap, h and m, cvs, walgreens, whole foods as you remember having to shut doors because they can't keep the staff safe, they can't operate stores without a massive amount of shoplifting. it is a huge problem only to learn where the mayor decided to hold the news conference, they had the police and other groups in the area. i don't remember the name of the group, police and other groups cleaned up, swept up. additional security in the area for that news conference making it look like not the open air drug market that it is. >> which they proclaimed it, decided this would be

a place to get the drugs so they gradually kill themselves. it is called um plaza. they said let's have a press conference and give the people an idea how much i care, live stream it so everyone in san francisco will see mayor london breen is on top of things. it was her idea for open air market, to defund the police. they're putting money back in the police force. her idea to gut buildings and put the homeless there. her idea to let the homeless call their sidewalks their home and do horrible things on the sidewalks, making it unlivable, unworkable, make it impossible to have a business there. big chains say we can open a lot of places, why don't we open up a place so much business friendly and not hostile. not only did that get out of control, reminds me what they did with president biden when he went to el paso, they cleaned it all up, got rid of everyone, including

illegal immigrants, he says what's the problem. here they clean it up. this is a cost of $4600 just for this event. when people are pushed around, knocked around, they show up angry. one brick almost hit a little kid standing on the stage, they quickly shut it down and moved on. an embarrassment. and finally an elected leader sees what happens when they make bad decisions for the city. these people are erupting, they want their city back. >> sandra: and want the drugs out of there. fen fentanyl overdose up 41% from first three months of last year. year over year change. brian, that's a huge problem. i want to play this, michael shell enburger on how san francisco leaders

are just plain out of touch. >> they're in a bubble. they don't understand how bad the situation is on the street. these are folks that don't actually go downtown any more. you go to san francisco's downtown now, it is like a zombie apocalypse. >> to hold a news conference, clean it up, a public works sanitation worker is quoted in the san francisco standard about the cleanup that happened before the news conf conference, gonna clean it up for the mayor from the sanitation worker who asked to be anonymous because they're not authorized to speak to the press. >> gavin newsom was the mayor in san francisco, made the ground work. mayor breen takes over defund the police. then you have a wide open border where most fentanyl comes through. and permissive d.a.s that make it impossible for cops to do their job, they put the badge down and

walk away. this beautiful state is falling apart before our eyes. this is one moment in which an elected leader was forced to reckon with their policies front and center. >> sandra: and they keep taxing more of those that clung to the state and are hanging on as long as they can and they keep taxing them out of the state. >> john: sounds like new york. >> sandra: one nation, what's coming up? >> memorial day, we lead with frank siller and tunnel to towers. one started with the military, one started with first responders helping the military. we also have fun. best of news dual. at the end of the show talk about stories that don't get enough play. saturday at 8 and 11. >> sandra: we will be watching. >> john: not allowed to have fun, brian. news. florida governor ron desantis fresh off his 2024 announcement, has events in iowa, new

hampshire, south carolina on the schedule next week. a new fox news poll showing desantis has a big gap to close on former president trump. voters preferring president trump by 33 point margin. senior national correspondent rich edson is live with the latest. rich, desantis is already contrasting his record against the former president, but the former president is making fun of him at the same time. >> that's right. he is looking at the poll. that's the dynamic playing out. florida governor ron desantis accuses president trump of adding trillions to the national debt while in office and failing to finish the border wall. desantis is criticizing trump's covid response, told the new hampshire radio show that trump is only attacking him because he understands he's got the best shot at beating the former president. trump spent months ripping desantis. other republican candidates are joining in like former u.n. ambassador nikki haley whose campaign called desantis trump without the

charm. desantis is pitching voters on his conservative and controversial record governing florida. >> you got to be able to win and then when you get in office, you've got to be able to deliver results. i think we've been able to do both of those as good or better than anybody in the country. >> trump and his campaign spent the night and today criticizing desantis's rollout on twitter last night, saying 25 minutes of technical problems is another example why the florida governor is not ready for the presidency. this morning, republican challenger welcomed desantis to the race. >> wasn't the smoothest rollout. i can empathize with technical snafus a candidate may go through. put that to one side. that's not the important part. the important part is we have to elevate the debate about what we stand for and why we stand for it. >> haley, scott, manike

pence are visiting early caucus states like iowa, new hampshire, south carolina. john? >> john: the race is on. rich is following it all for us. thank you. sandra? >> sandra: a win for the little guy at the supreme court. the justices siding with a 94-year-old minnesota grandmother who lost her home to foreclosure over back taxes and other bills. geraldine tyler's debt totalled about $15,000. the county sold the property for $40,000 and pocketed the profit. the court calling that excessive as the chief justice put it. the taxpayer must render unto caesar what is caesar's but not more. the ruling grants the path for her to get compensation from the state. >> john: north carolina parents outraged after democratic governor roy cooper declared a state of emergency in attempt to stop a school choice bill.

he argues it will crush public schools. parents say it is about what fits best for their children, including our next guest who used a voucher to get her children in private schools that best fit their needs. she's a mother of three and liaison of parents for educational freedom in north carolina and joins us now. we should point out, heidi, you're a single mom, you work in the mental health field. you work three jobs and took advantage of the opportunity scholarship program in north carolina. sent a couple to private school, the other one you paid for outright. why is school choice so important to you? >> basically we the parents are tired of fighting against the system trying to look for help for our kids. our kids have to deal with so many problems today, not just academically but they have to deal with bullying and we don't know what to do. this is why i was forced somehow to look for

private school where we didn't have any school choice like we do today because that basically saved my child's life. >> you had an older daughter who was special needs, she had a brain stroke, being bullied in public school. again, you work three jobs and pay it out of your own pocket for her to go to private school. second daughter went to private elementary and public high school. she's studying to be a teacher, working with wake county public school system now, and then your son, third child, is in 10th grade in a private school. so what did you think when governor cooper came forward and said what the legislature is doing in terms of expanding the opportunity scholarship program so that everybody in the state has access to it is going to kill public education and we need to stop it, i am declaring a state of emergency? >> this is not about systems, this is about our students. we the parent know what works best for our kids. we are looking for those options because we

couldn't find those options in public school system. this is why again this is for our children. this is not for rich people. this is not for families with money. they already have the money to send their kids to whatever they want to send them, but we, parents like me, families like me need to have school choice so we can provide better education and options for our children. >> this would apply to wealthy individuals in the state of north carolina, the amount of money they would get compared to the amount of money lower income people would get is much smaller piece of the pie. here's what the governor said when he announced his declaration of a state of emergency. listen here. >> it's clear that the republican legislature is aiming to choke the life out of public education. i'm declaring this state of emergency because you need to know what's happening. if you care about public schools in north carolina, it's time to take immediate action and tell

them to stop the damage that will set back our schools for a generation. >> what do you say to that? >> this is not fair. i think he doesn't have information completely. the school system, they haven't changed anything for years. now that we are getting the opportunity through school choice, through the scholarship program to have options, now they want to come and start improving or changing the system and that's good that they have that in mind, but how long will that take for the system to get better, to improve itself. it will take years. we need the choices today. my kids are in school today and they need those opportunities today. it is good they do it for the future generations, but for now we need to have complete control over

their life in our hands, parents' hands. we want the best for our kids and we know individually they're not just a number in a huge school system. they are people that are growing up, getting education to become good people, future families and this is why we need to make sure they can get the best options possible for them. >> we hope that your daughter studying to be a teacher now will help to make a difference in the future with all of the other terrific teachers who are so important in the lives of children. heidi gomez, thank you so much for sharing your story. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> so here's the thing. who doesn't love a yellow school bus, right? can you raise your hand if you love a yellow school bus, right? >> sandra: that was vice president kamala harris back in october introducing the administration plan to buy

a billion dollars worth of brand new electric school buses. but there's been a small bump in the road along the way. >> john: a michigan school district that got some of the buses says its fleet barely works. what's a better way to use that money? eric nesbitt and bjorn join us next. progressive's home quote explorer makes it easy to compare home insurance options. cool. what do we do now? we live. save time and money with progressive's home quote explorer. what you do afterwards is up to you. feeling sluggish or weighed down? could be a sign that your digestive system isn't at its best. but a little metamucil everyday can help. metamucil's psyllium fiber gels to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down and also helps lower cholesterol and slows sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so you can feel lighter and more energetic.

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north carolina. ranked america's top state for business. >> $5 billion over the next five years, what we're doing today is the first of the billion dollars, starting the next school year, next school year. roll these buses out to pick up our kids and take them to school. >> sandra: all right. that was kamala harris in october when she was announcing a billion dollars to go towards at the administration's electric school bus plan. only a few months later, one of michigan's largest school districts is sounding the alarm about significant performance issues, to put it delicately about that expensive electric fleet. let's bring in eric nesbitt, the michigan state minority leader and author of the new book "best

things first." okay. more about that in a minute. you're offering big-time solutions. really important. first, i want to get the story from you, senator, about what the administration called a total game-changer at the time of the announcement. a ball dollars goes to these school districts to buy 2,300 electric school buses. and now what's happening with the school buses? >> yeah, what we're seeing in ann arbor, which is a liberal bastion and southeast michigan with the university of michigan that is there, so these left wing environmentalists will try to make this work no matter what. the school buses cost about five times more than your traditional school buses, which is again, a ridiculous amount of money be, spent. a lot of this technology is coming from secretary grand home, our former governor, a company that she owning millions of stock in before. we're finding they're five times more expensive than traditional

buses, breaking down more often. the middle of winter, electric anything has real challenges, recharging and staying out on the road and getting any efficiencies. instead of providing schools the flexibility to invest in what they need, we're forcing them to buy school buses that are breaking down and having real maintenance problems and five times more expensive than traditional school buses that are proven. i think it's a disaster waiting to happen. governor whitmire, the michigan governor, introduced her budget to put another $150 million on top of the billions the biden administration is spending on school buses. two weeks ago, the michigan senate, the republicans offered an amendment to say instead of spending $75 million on these electric school buses, that we should go ahead and use that money for scholarships for reading and learning loss. i think it's a travesty that every democrat voted against it.

>> sandra: i'm looking at the pictures of the school bus. i'm reminded in the reporting about this, it doesn't cover all the expenses required to the senator's point. this is something that you write a lot about. the districts didn't necessarily receive all the funding that they needed to build new charging stations, to accommodate the new fleet of buses. providing the plugs and the wires that bus depots need. did they not think this through? this is about time. green energy push is happening without the innovation needed behind it. >> it's not like we didn't know. electric cars and electric buses are probably part of the future. we should be embraced when it's a good idea. but you know, when you have to pay five types as much to get a bus that essentially delivers less well than the old bus, maybe you don't have a winning strategy. we need to recognize that you can't force this through and tell people that you'll have

worse service, you'll have your kids less -- might not make it to school. this is not how you solve problems. you solve problems by telling people, we're going to innovate our way out of this. we're going to come up with these buses that will be so good and electric that we will all want them. maybe that will never happen. but maybe it will happen for electric cars. the point here is that we need innovation, not mandates. >> sandra: to both of your points, this is the ann arbor public school sustainability director on the unexpected costs. they say -- >> sandra: and this is v.p.

harris. this is important stuff. this is v.p. harris from october on how the electric buses will keep children healthier. listen. >> how many of us have had to deal with the fact that when our children are exposed to pollutants, what that means in terms of their respiratory status, not to mention illness. these are some of the issues that we're going to address. ? >> sandra: okay. something that she was pushing with narratives like that. i want to make sure i get this in here, the energy secretary sold that observership. she had the interest in the electric bus maker. she sold that. this is an a.p. article dated may 2021. she sold stock in the bus maker that biden touted during that virtual visit. before they launched this program and this funding in late last year. but to that point, i mean, how far are they willing to go to push this technology when quite

clearly areas like michigan and these counties about when we're discussing are quite not firmly not ready for it? >> well, this is part of the challenges that one, it's not technology neutral. if the economy and the market allows this to grow, it makes sense. the innovation of the american worker is unbelievable. however, there's full subsidies on the front side. there's a brand new ford plant that the michigan governor has an e.v. plant that the michigan governor has provided $1.8 billion of subsidies. 700,000 per job. goldman sachs notes discussed in the "wall street journal" recently says that federal subsidies from the inflation explosion act that biden signed last year will likely result in another $1.3 billion of annual tax subsidy for ford, which will make the cars about 35% less expensive than now, but still 17% more expensive than the

internal combustion engine. that's why they need the tax credits. >> sandra: the solution? >> there's lots of solutions. we should invest in innovation for climate, but there's other problems in the world. lots of people not studying, not getting enough food, getting healthy lives. those are all the things i write about in my book. >> sandra: thanks for the book. i'll be reading this, sir. great to have you here in new york, bjorn. senator, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having us on. >> sandra: john? >> john: before we go, every dog has its day but not many have a day like this. seton hall university giving justin the service dog his own diploma at graduation. he got to walk the commencement stage with his owner, grace, who earned a bachelor of science in elementary and special

education. congratulations to justin! look at that. carrying his diploma proudly across the stage. >> sandra: dogs make me happy. i shouldn't speak for everybody. >> john: except when your daughter wakes you up and said dad, charlie peed on my rug. that happened this morning. >> sandra: that's better than the other option. have a great weekend. thanks for joining us. i'm sandra smith. >> john: the other one is easier to clean up. i'm john roberts. "the story" starts right now. >> martha: yuk. okay. thank you, john and sandra. good afternoon, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. governor ron desantis now officially in the presidential race. a rocky start last night on his 2024 campaign. the roll-out video has racked up more than 20 million views so far today. >> we held the line when free tom hung in the balance. we showed that we can and must revitalize america. we need th